It is not more than what you want it to be

Do you really think success is what you need? Do you actually make yourself believe that you will be happy by being successful? Are you ready to waste time of your life probably not to get what you want? These questions might be quite pessimistic. I make myself think that anyone clear enough with what he or she wants has what it takes to answer these questions. We all know how successful Bill Gates—creator of Microsoft—is successful and has enough money to be happy for this life and probably ten more. But, what is success? Success may be like the cure for cancer, some say they have found it, others do not even know about it; while some die looking for it. Whenever I’m looking for the definition of success, I agree with Will Smith who said “Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”

Talking about success is sometimes an undesirable experience for some. There are many who say they know what it is. Others claim they possess it. I really do not look for how others find their way up the success scale. Success is merely a personalized experience. You make your own success. Sometimes you have to shape yourself to what society accepts as normal, but the bottom line is that what makes you successful is good enough to be success. So why would you want to waste your time reading what I think success if I just stated that success is personal? Because my success is only mine and I am the one who achieves it. But it might help others find theirs as others’ success have helped me find mine.

Success is all about taking risks. It is doing what you would not do on a normal day because it would just keep your life: normal. It is in that moment that you decide to drastically change your life and move one that you find who you really want to be and what completes you. Nobody is hit by success. Success comes whenever you look for it. Even if you are not doing something to find whatever success you may find, you are still doing something for success. This stated, people who wonder all their lives looking for success and never find it can clearly have this for an answer: you are doing nothing to find it. I have great respect for those who have success. For example, Steve Jobs—creator of the well-known Apple—is a tremendously successful man that has all the money someone can ask. Clearly this is how everybody wants to be. Nobody, and I mean nobody wants to be miserable. Even though if your success is miserable to someone else, achieving it makes YOU successful.

With all that has been said, still nothing is close to the solution to find success. And let us be honest. Who knows how to be successful? If someone does, please let me be the first one to know. If I knew how to be successful in life, I would not be in college or writing this paper. I would clearly be on an island—owned by me—having a real life: one without preoccupations or responsibilities. Instead I am a college student preparing myself to the next step in life: slavery (more commonly known as work).

I have a dream. It is to play baseball for the New York Mets. I have been told that with much effort, I would be able to reach my so longed dream. People find the Major Leagues as impossible. To me, impossible is nothing. I see “impossible” as a synonym for challenge. There is no challenge big enough for a person with hope and the desire to be more than they could ever dream. Still, the world is a pessimistic place where envy often becomes the obstacle many impose on themselves between miserableness and success. So sometimes you might be near to achieve your goals, but somebody shows up who has your same dream. And that is not a problem. Sharing dreams. It is actually something very common and totally normal.

When two persons share a dream, it should be an impulse not to make the other person fail, but for yourself as an individual to make it to the top. Challenges make people take themselves to the next level. Whenever we are looking to be successful at something only ourselves are trying to achieve, we do not have pressure and, therefore, we take our time. But whenever we are under the pressure of someone actually threatening our dreams, we put extra effort in it and simply develop skills not possible under any circumstance. To me, reaching success this way is a milestone. In today’s world, everyone wants to be that person everybody wants to be. I personally want to be someone others use as a role model. That is what makes my quest for success so interesting. Not only proving I’m successful to myself but to others as well.

I recently read an article from a Puerto Rican newspaper that has deeply touched me. This girl, Emily Villanueva (17), was going home after school with four of her friends on her SUV. She was a star student, great friend, loyal, and a great example for anyone. Then, all of a sudden, two men on a hijacked vehicle hit the van the girls were traveling, killing young Emily and all of the dreams she might have had for the future. Her funeral was one all Puerto Rico watched. She was graduated from high school instantly and will be remembered by many—friends and not friends. I set this as an example not to what success is but how can one be pushed to succeed. I did not know Emily; I wish I had. She might have had a really short life and probably never got the chance to be the great human being she was destined to be.

This is a sad example, I know. But it shows us that after terrible events like this one, people see what terrible things life might have awaiting for one. It is in these moments that people put themselves to the challenge of overcoming all of their fears, all of those obstacles that make the human being incapable of achieving what one saw one day as impossible. When effort is put, one can overcome any obstacle, inconvenience, or wall. Nothing can stop a motivated human being and after seeing what happened to Emily, one can only think that it is better to thrive to accomplish those goals before it is too late.

Why would this isolated incident be related to success? Why bring up the death of an innocent young girl to make a point? Today, people only respond to drastic events. It seems like nobody puts the necessary effort but the one necessary to be average. Whenever they see that death is on everyone’s doorstep, desperation comes and suddenly goals to be successful in life appear. This is what really sets out truly successful persons. Those who do not need to be impacted to realize that they want to be happy, they want more, they want to be that dream that kept them awake for long nights. Whenever one can proceed in that quest not for what happened to others and might happen to me, but for what they want to be part of whenever they quench their goals, people will start to find success more often and more easily.

Now, what is success? It is nothing more that what you want to be. Like Will Smith said, it is not money what makes a person successful, but success enhances what already is inside a person. So now, success is not a necessity but a commodity. It is not wrong to be successful. There is nothing bad in wanting more and better that what you already posses. But you will never be successful if you do not first realize that what really counts is not what you might have, but what you have in the present and can work with to become a better, successful person. Be happy with yourself; realize what you are and what makes you… Only then you will be successful to your own self, which is the ultimate success in life: Be true to thyself.