Beat The GMAT

dhanda.arun · Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:02 pm

"There is only one definition of success-to be able to spend your life in your o3wn way."
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

The issue of finding the true definition of success is a controversial one. On the one hand, if the meaning of success is narrowed down to a person to person approach, it would lead to different definitions for the same word. On the other hand, making a universally acceptable definition of success is a highly cumbersome task. However in the final analysis of this issue, I believe that true meaning of the success is to be able to spend one's life in one's own way.
The chief reason for my belief is that the feeling of being successful comes from within. Success is associated with the accomplishment of goals. And since, goals varies from person to person, the definition of success also varies from person to person. For example, the goal of a student may be to achieve good grades, while the goal of a businessman may be to maximize the profits of his organization. Each of these goals when reached means success to respective persons. In no case getting good marks can mean success to someone if that was not one's goal. Further, when a person decides to spend his life in a particular way, it is because he feels that he can fulfill his goals only by following the path he wants to tread. Hence, the feeling of being successful comes when one is able to tread the path one wanted to.
Secondly, the word success is associated tightly with materialistic achievements and this does not leads us to a true definition of success. A nice car and a huge bank balance might mean success to some but not all. If success would have come with materialistic gains, then the people of the richest nations should have been the happiest people. But recent surveys have shown that people from countries like Denmark are the happiest people and not the people from the richest countries. Countries like India where the true meaning of success is spiritual rather than materialistic have been a hot spot for people who are in search for happiness and peace.
In sum, I can concur that a global definition of success is not feasible. The true definition of success varies from person to person and it is the ability to spend life in one's own way.