[Alain de Button] Meaning of Success
One of the interesting things about success is that we think we know what it means. A lot of the time our ideas about what it would mean to live successfully are not our own. Theyβre sucked in from other people. And we also suck in messages from everything from the television to advertising to marketing, etcetera. These are hugely powerful forces that define what we want and how we view ourselves. What I want to argue for is not that we should give up on our ideas of success, but that we should make sure that they are our own. We should focus in on our ideas and make sure that we own them, that weβre truly the authors of our own ambitions. Because itβs bad enough not getting what you want, but itβs even worse to have an idea of what it is you want and find out at the end of the journey that it isnβt, in fact, what you wanted all along.
- A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success, Alain de Button