Success Redux

[+ purplekow]

Devonhunter posted an interesting post in the Ask An Escort section but I wanted to pose the same question here, as I think it may open the question up to more posters.

 

To summarize Devon's post, he states that as he has gotten more financially successful as an escort, he has begun to value the money less as a measure of success and he is now using other criteria to measure his success.

 

I am sure there are many posters here who would be considered very successful by most standards. Many posters here have had little shame in boasting of their financial success. Others have certainly told tales of interpersonal success.

I am curious how people measure success, professional, personal, familial, spirtual.

Perhaps this a hackneyed question but I would still ask this august body, when you look back on your life, what do you use as a measure of success? Are you all about the Benjamins? Is it he who dies with the most toys wins? Do the syrupy lines of Paul Anka sum it up for you?

I have address some of my thoughts on the original thread. Thanks for the input.

[justaguy]

Respect. (...as Areatha gives us the anthem...) I think a mark of success is when people seek you out to discuss professional and/or personal problems.

[+ Charlie]

I think success is having done all the things I wanted to do in my life, and done them reasonably well (my piano playing excepted, but at least I tried).

[gp0560]

How to recognize success

 

Respect. (...as Areatha gives us the anthem...) I think a mark of success is when people seek you out to discuss professional and/or personal problems.

 

Yup, that's definitely major. Also having enough resources so that I don't have to worry about money. Not rich rich, just enough to be "unworried" during recessions. Enough extra to be able to spend time with the best escort around.

 

Also having found many years ago a job that never once bored me, except for writing those damn status reports and performance reviews. But that may be a happiness/satiisfaction factor rather than a success factor.

[Guest Callipygean]

Success

 

Who can judge for another what consitutes a valid measure of "success"? Material "success" is probably what most people think of when they hear the word. Nothing wrong with that, certainly, if material accumulation truly brings one happiness. For some, I have no doubt that it does. But for them, it's the fun of the game that keeps them playing -- money is just how they keep score.

 

It can all come to nothing, however, if the means become an end in themselves.

 

Ten degrees of innocence

Warm as sunlight in the fall

‘Bout love or money

You don’t say a word at all

Eyes on the horizon

Leaned up against the door

Shadow ‘cross your face

Yeah, your heart’s on the floor.

 

Walls closing in on you

But you feel lonely in a crowd

Founded by the silence

You need to scream out loud

Change for you’s a hard day’s work

Oh, oh, ain’t it so

This universe between us

Just has to go

 

No matter how hard you try

Life won't give a moment's rest

And now you've come to know that

Nothing fails like success

 

Harry Manx "Nothing Fails Like Success" Mantras For Madmen, Dog My Cat records 2005

[Kevin Slater]

I think success is having done all the things I wanted to do in my life, and done them reasonably well (my piano playing excepted, but at least I tried).

 

I wouldn't consider myself a success unless I had the confidence and an open enough mind to try things at which I was pretty sure I was going to fail.

 

Kevin Slater

[Guest DuchessIvanaKizznhugg]

Success....

 

During a 3-year stint in my mid-30's, while wading through a number of personal crises (death of my lover; death of my father; institutionalization & subsequent death of my mother; being fired from an executive position that I had put much energy into; and oddly....quitting smoking) I came to question absolutely EVERYTHING as to the meaning of my life.

 

The "mantra" that I turned to---which provided significant comfort as well as a reason to pick myself up and carry on--- and which still presents what I consider to be worthy goalposts for me today is:

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;

 

This is to have succeeded.

 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

[+ purplekow]

Thanks for that RWEmerson post Ivana. It is appreciated to have a since response instead of the thinly veiled venom one sometimes encounters from some other posterz to this site.

[Guest greatness]

Nice

 

Thank you for your post! It lightened up my day.

 

During a 3-year stint in my mid-30's, while wading through a number of personal crises (death of my lover; death of my father; institutionalization & subsequent death of my mother; being fired from an executive position that I had put much energy into; and oddly....quitting smoking) I came to question absolutely EVERYTHING as to the meaning of my life.

 

The "mantra" that I turned to---which provided significant comfort as well as a reason to pick myself up and carry on--- and which still presents what I consider to be worthy goalposts for me today is:[/color][/size][/font]

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;

 

This is to have succeeded.

 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson