Think over that one word.
What does it mean to you?
How does it apply to you?
How do you define “success”?

How do most people define “success”? Most people define it the way most people define it. That sounds like a reflexive statement, but it’s true. People go with the flow. They follow the definition of success that has been shoved down our throat since birth by the media and other external influences, and therefore is accepted as truth. What is the common definition? Doing what you’re told. Doing what you’re told well. Becoming a machine of authority, becoming a drone of conformity, and becoming a clone of the common. But what does it matter that your life means nothing? You’re successful.

When you work your butt off in school to learn about what happened 1238 years ago that you’ll never need to know again, just to attain the grade, you’re being successful. You’re trained to regurgitate knowledge that you’ll never need again. They do the same with dogs. If you grind the same thing into their heads enough, they know what it means, and are able to repeat the task to do well in the eyes of authority. This is the modern world’s definition of success. The ability to follow, not to lead. The ability to repeat, not to engineer.

The ability to survive, not to live.

Instead of drones, why not get leaders? Instead of the ability to repeat, shouldn’t we be trained to be imaginative? Where do we get those who stand out? Those who rise above the rest? They’re risk takers and rebels. Movers and shakers. People who get in your face and challenge all that you know. They’re the people who change things. Who question things. Who go away from the beaten path, and carve a path of their own. A lot of them fail, but some, those few outstanding individuals, rise above the rest and show the rest of the world how “successful” they really are.

Who will be on top tomorrow? Who will be tomorrow’s rebel? Tomorrow’s hero? Tomorrow’s success? Will it be the people who followed authority? The people who conformed, the people who followed? Maybe. A few of those good followers will learn enough to sustain them, and allow them to push through the corporate ladder, and they’ll come out on top as a successful CEO of some huge company.

But what about the others? Those who go against the flow? Those who rebel, find loopholes, and break rules? Look at your role models. Look at some of the most successful people in history. Einstein failed elementary school. Shakespeare only went to grammar school. In more modern times, there’s bands that come from hard pasts, hooked on drugs, abused, what ever else. There’s inventors. Steve Jobs was a known drug user. Some of the most successful people in history didn’t follow the rules. Broke from the common, the conformist, the normal.

But what are you going to do? Stamp out a name for yourself? Give yourself a title that will be remembered in history? Are you going to change things? Be a mover and a shaker? Be someone who means something to the world. Who makes a difference. That is what our definition of success should be. Rather than teaching ourselves to be labeled at a young age based on grades and ability to regurgitate facts shoved down our throat by elitist pigs. We should rate ourselves on ingenuity, creativity, originality. We should have a meaning. If you want a name, you need to carve it yourself, not just act as a drone for the survival and support of the human race.

Me? Maybe. I try. Who really knows? I may fall victim to the grey monotony that is the corporate conformity of the 21st Century, like the vast majority of the populous. But maybe I’ll make something of myself. Maybe my name will be known by people who I don’t know. Maybe people will look up to me and be inspired. That is my definition of success. Inspiration. Exist as such a figure, such a powerful symbol that it inspires others to better themselves and achieve beyond what they could bound by conformist chains.
Exist as an idol. Exist as a symbol. Exist beyond your reach. Exist beyond your time. Succeed.

Success.

Think over that one word.
What does it mean to you?
How does it apply to you?
How do you define “success”?