Success

This Freakonomics post tries to address the relationship between grades and success, and immediately runs into a roadblock when defining success. I came up with my own definition, then read through the comments to see what the rest of the riff-raff had to say and didn't find my idea. A blog post is born.

The commenters proposed many definitions, including income, notoriety, happiness, satisfaction, judgement by peers, and self-determination (the ability to choose one's path).

I won't go into all the problems with every definition, but I will address self-determination. I like self-determination as a measure of success, but it only works if the determiner is reasonable. For example, imagine a very intelligent but uncoordinated person who at first aspires to be professional athlete and fails, then goes on to excel in journalism. Although this person was not able to choose their desired career, it is a mistake to call them unsuccessful in the long run. I think "self-determination within reason" is a better definition of success, but now we are stuck with the vague phrase "within reason".

Another important point is that "success" should not necessarily mean being the best in your field. Do you need a Nobel Prize to be a successful economist? Do you need to outsell JK Rowling to be a successful children's author? Do you need to top the charts to be a successful musician? These are rhetorical questions, folks. The answer is no, and a good definition of success will address that.

Next, I looked up success on Dictionary.com, and two out of the four definitions included the adjective successful. Nice work. The other two were:

1.	the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.

2.	the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

Both of these are actually quite good, but neither hints at the larger significance I'm seeking. I could set out to get in shape and achieve that , or my current employer (a cafe/bakery) could award me Employee of the Month, but that doesn't mean that my mom would breathe a sigh of relief knowing her only daughter was a success.

I argue that there are three ingredients to success:

1. Setting goals
2. Achieving (or coming close) to those goals
3. Recognizing your own achievements

Brief explanation:
1. You must be trying to do something in order to succeed or fail. See dictionary definition #1.
2. Almost self-explanatory. Have you set goals within your reach? Did you know what needed to be done? Did you work hard enough?
3. If you cannot see that you have reached your goal, or cannot recognize your own ability to set and achieve goals, how will you set achievable goals in the future?

Feel free to argue with me.