I see a lot of articles & memes online on this topic, so I just want to end the discussion (if possible) so that people can get on to talking about things that aren’t a superficial narcissistic waste of effort, focus, time & other resources.
First of all, let me distinguish between Sucess & “Success”:
- Success is a word with a fixed (but flexible) generic meaning, and variable contextual meanings;
- “Success” is ONE of those contextual meanings, specifically in the concept “motivation & self-development”.
IE – the first is real, and the second is delusional bullshit … but let me just prove that to you with a good argument rather than just making the assertion.
DEFINITIONS:
- Success – if you were to have a look at every dictionary ever constructed, and thought about both the agenda of the writers, their motivations, the audience context, and the ideologies & beliefs of other key stakeholders in the process of production & publication of such a book … then you also thought about the lexicographical, etymological & syntactical logic of communication, words, language & literature … hopefully you’d come to a conclusion something like this, for the most generic yet still flexible meaning for ‘success’:
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“The achievement of an agenda or objective, regardless of the merit of consequences of that objective”.
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- So if you then thought about what defines a successful situation, had a clue about logic maths & science … and you were honest about it … you’d come up with something like this:
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“Conditions and probability of success, relate first to the crossing of a minimum critical threshold of resources & circumstances, whereby the probability of success first becomes non-zero (however small that probability may yet be) … and following on from this, the traversal of a range of circumstances with resources availability causing the rise of such consequential success probability, until finally crossing a threshold beyond which success is assured, with perhaps a very final threshold whereby it becomes inevitable and no amount of sabotage can stop its momentum towards the outcome (even if variables of that outcome are indeed changed)”.
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- “Success” on the other hand is marketing bullshit, and is used in the context of people with no self esteem unless they rob someone else of it first … so they use this word to define themselves as “better than” others, because the last thing they want to do is admit their good fortune, and they’re often completely scientifically illiterate, so they have no idea why their statement is false at the outset … which if you care to know, is basically because they tend to cherry pick the data which proves their assertion, and sometimes to the point of unwittingly claiming they’re somehow a closed system (which is impossible & illogical).
CONCLUSION:
Stop being arseholes by touting all your “success” and stop offering advice when most of your successes actually due to the good fortune of your circumstances relative to others … and instead, take your resources and go use them to HELP people directly, and wherever possible GIVE YOUR RESOURCES AWAY so that others can have the dignity of helping themselves … AND UNDERSTAND THIS:
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Giving someone money once does not give you an excuse to criticise their usage of it, for they too have their very own personal circumstantial critical thresholds to cross … and unless you can do those calculations, you have no basis whatsoever for presuming your help was enough, nor adequately and appropriately focused to their needs.
Thanks for your consideration.