I want the money,
money and the cars,
cars and the clothes,
the hoes,
i suppose,
i just wanna be,
i just wanna be successful.
- Successful: Drake feat Trey Songs
Growing up, I had the aspirations of a hero destined to save the world bestowed upon my shoulder by my parents. I did well in school, and my parents stressed the importance of graduating, going to college, and getting a good job. Whenever they spoke about me, they said “he’s going to make it. We have faith”. Teachers were never worried about my development, and had high hopes for me as well. I would come home with a report card that read like this:
A, A, B+, B
I’d show my mother these excellent grades, and instead of the King’s welcome I expected, she scoffed at me, proclaiming in all her Haitian splendor “I don’t send you to school for B’s!” This example helped shaped my vision of success for years to come. Nothing short of the gold medal. Second place is the first loser. No moral victories. The word felt and seemed tangible as a teenager. Now, success seems so ambiguous. I can’t shake the feeling that despite all that I “accomplished”, that I have fallen short of grabbing that brass ring.
I reminisce on my college, and remember that I had a list of goals and aspirations. I didn’t know what profession (exact job) I would get, but I knew that within 5-6 years I wanted to position myself for that next level of success. I wanted to make six figures, have a house, notoriety, maybe even a family. I don’t have the home of my own, I make 5 figures (the norm), I’m singleblackmale, and I’m at a crossroads where I want to go professionally. Yes I graduated college. Yes I have my health. Yes I know I’m lucky to be working when other people can’t get a job to literally save their lives, but something in me always says “not good enough”, “you’re not there yet”, “stop settling for mediocrity”. I guess I’m torn between recognizing the goals I’ve accomplished vs. complacency with those goals, and using those goals as an excuse to say “I made it”.
I wanted people to recognize my work, not to the point of “stardom”, but having people recognize you seemed to be the pinnacle of success. Now, in 2009, I’m unsure of where I want to go career wise. Through blogging, I rediscovered my love for writing, and I love entertainment, but do I really want to commit to this full-time? Especially in “these rough economic times” you have to be more cognizant of the decisions you make, and right now sticking with my current gig seems prudent, but I don’t see myself doing that forever. I wonder if my current goals and vision of success are unrealistic. Law #47 of the 48 Laws of Power states “Do not go past the mark you aimed for; in victory, learn when to stop”. I ask myself in rebuttal “You know you’re not at a stopping point, but when will you EVER know?” Have I created a “success paradox” where the idea of success is made tangible, yet since its meaning resides in the eye of the beholder, it remains constantly intangible and unreachable? Am I just opening up more questions than answers? (Looking directly at you LOST).
My heart tells me I can’t stop, won’t stop eh eh eh eh, but I just wonder where the limit exist between neurotic aspirations and logical realism. Wherever the final destination to success resides, I hope to reach there someday, and I hope to find satisfaction. SBM fam, my question to you: How do you measure success? Do you have any regrets in the life path you chose? Are you frustrated with your current position in life? Am I over-analyzing?
Streetz Shuttlesworth alias “The Dream Catcher”
Your childhood report card experience sounds like mine. Although I am not Haitian, my parents would do the same thing. And let my lil brother bring home a C, and they were praising him!!!
I wish I would have went to a college and stayed and got my degree right after high school. Going to school as an adult and working full time is NOT the bizness. It really is cutting into me getting married and starting a family and what nots… I want to be done with school before I even engage in any of that.
I measure success by your happiness level… if your bills are paid, if you aren't worrying about a thing.
Plus I feel like I'm behind everyone else. I'm taking classes with teeny boppers and bc of the age difference, they are so annoying!
This is a good jawn. I wrote something similar:
http://www.threewaystotakeit.com/lets-be-grown-an…
I'm gonna challenge folks to come out the lurking world and participate on a topic that deals with sumthin other than sex . It'll be therapeutic at the least.lol.
Damn. This is good stuff.
Re measure of success. Determined by the objective.
Re regrets. Just one (and only one). Not appreciating the opportunity college affords.
Re frustration. Yes.
Re over-analyzing. Maybe. Are you procrastinating? Or is this rumination a sincere effort to move forward?
A question of my own. Is satisfaction a worthy pursuit?
"Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."
Barack Obama
It's never too late. I'm a model of this, ridiculously high IQ, did nothing with myself, dropped out of college, worked and played, had a kid, went back, got a worthless degree and then did nothing…jumped into real estate, felt kind of lack luster about it all and one day went back to school(last Fall) by next summer I'll have another BA, and a Master's..I've become an advocate for Education and I'm positioning myself to be a major player in my city in the years to come…and I'm 30 and a single mother.
I work full-time and attend school full-time, make time for the gym, my kid and fun with friends…life is what you make it, but sacrifice and hard work is necessary..it doesn't come easy.
"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her."
And lastly, try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value…and success will surely follow.
LOL @ Slim. Good lookin. I just had to get that off my chest, so cats don't think I'm just some virtual voyeur, lol.
On another note, You ever feel like you haven't done anything interesting in life? lol. I knwo people who've lived in 50-11 states, play all the instruments in an orchestra, have travelled the world, and I'm like "wow, what am I doing?" I look back and my "interesting" factor is pretty cool, and there's still more stuff I want to do.
@nicki – as long as you achieve your goas, don't worry about the timing or keeping up with the Joneses. All life experiences are different.
I think I'm pretty successful, although when talking to people their idea is a lot different than mine. If I ran down what I've done in the past 12 years, I'm sure people would be like "holy sh*t," but often I get "wow, you should be doing X" as though it's not good enough.
I'm not done yet and I'm still growing so although I'm successful in the sense of career, education and life, I have a ways to go.
man in high school i would get above 4.0's on the regular. my mom swore up and down i was going to be a renowned surgeon. just wasn't for me. i loved science, just not medicine. my passion was in research. now that i'm getting ready to graduate, i think i'm going to change career paths again. my focus is now on law. i want to combine both the phd and jd. may not happen but whatever i do, i will be successful.
@ Jasmine
"And lastly, try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value…and success will surely follow."
Chuuuch.Tabernacle.Synagogue.MOSQUE! Excellent words. Value DEF > Success, and I think value is easily measured. def will keep that in mind!
@Nelia
"Are you procrastinating? Or is this rumination a sincere effort to move forward?"
There's always a part of me that says "you can def do better than XYZ". Its not procrastination as much as satisfaction and accomplishment. Which is why I reference Law #47. I don't think I'm at THAT stopping point yet. My objective is to live with no monetary worries and to be that man of value,(now yall got me thinking!) so im not there yet, but whe I think about it Im on my way.
"A question of my own. Is satisfaction a worthy pursuit?"
That is the ultimate prize for pursuit. To look back on it all and say "Im good." means that you are accomplished, feel no pressure of failure because it comes with the territory, and know that your achievements will be greater than your losses. Maybe Im too difficult on myself, or maybe Im built to reject any satisfaction in order to attain Successful perfection.
"@nicki – as long as you achieve your goas, don’t worry about the timing or keeping up with the Joneses. All life experiences are different."
That is true. thanks Streetz!
@Tunde
My mom wanted me to be the next Doogie Howser. lol. I just was not interested in Medicine. I know I could've did the whole med school thing, just was never interested.
I feel like at this current point in my life I am on track to accomplish great things. I don't think anything is out of reach for me. Of course life has shown me that some of my previous goals are reallly not what I want, and so i've adjusted them.
I don't think i've achieved success, but I have won many battles. At 25, i'm not worried, i'm sure i'll get there soon.
I think the key is to have a plan, and update it accordingly. A lot of people don't have any plan so it's hard to assess where they are in life because they are just living and striving for arbitrary goals.
I think the main thing to keep in mind is to measure your own success; don't let others measure it for you. I know that what your family/friends/misc loved ones think is important to you, but no one is more important to you than you. If you achieve someone else's success, you're not truly successful. Success is subjective, everyone has a different definition. It's your goal to find your own.
I used to think that success meant feeling complete with what you have…that you're "done". But, honestly, whenever I complete a goal, I always find another one. And when I completely that one, I'm sure I'll push myself further forward. I now think being successful is feeling satisfied with what you've done and opening yourself to further accomplisments (fullyknowing that you can accomplish those things)…because everyone can improve.
@ Cheekie
Cosign on this:"But, honestly, whenever I complete a goal, I always find another one. And when I completely that one, I’m sure I’ll push myself further forward."
I actually think one of the meanings of life is to constantly challenge yourself, learn new things, and to achieve while still striving for perfection, while knowing you will never reach it, what you end up with may be even more perfect.
I feel that its necessary to never truly be completely satisfied with what success you achieve in order to push you to the next level of success. I mean, if I were to accept that I “made it”, then the motivation that led me there would be diminished to some extent. For example, your moms told you B’s weren’t good enough, but I knew plenty of parents that were all too happy for their kids to bring home B’s, so why would the kid then think achieving anything more was necessary?
Id like to ramble on more about my thoughts but there plenty of other comments for folks to read. Ill say this though, were you’re at now is not necessarily where you will be in a few years. It’s your unwillingness to fully believe in your “success” that tells me you’ll go farther and do more. This blog is evidence enough of that theory.
Your not over analyzing, because if YOU are then I must have been over-over analyzing. At 23 I graduated from law school, which is a huge "accomplishment" and I still felt like it wasn't enough because I wasn't at the top of the class ( endless frustrated nights over that), but then my mother brought be back to my senses in a way that only she could. Law school for me was such a humbling experience ( I was one of the A+,A-, ect people too..but not so much in law school)that I think I changed my definition of success. Now I think the measure of success is a function of happiness and not so much meeting goals by a certain time or age. I want to believe that even making less money then I ever thought I would, writing one less book then I thought I would, maybe even with no one knowing my name, yet and still without meeting those "goals" I would still be happy and therefore successful. Of course, I'm still waiting for the day that I'm truly happy with where I am in life but I'm only 25 so I think I have some time.
if there is one thing i can pass on to you brothas it is this.
90% of your success in live is determined by the MATE you choose.
harp on it, BS on it, and then say HNIC dont know what he talkin about.
but I can tall you if you have a destructive woman by your side…. 0% of your success matters. How many fine as hell and upwardly mobile sistas did I date during the time i was a single black male. did I stay with any of them? no no really, because success is actually the least important thing in the world because true success hinges on another factor.
I have a buddy. He was the most success driven brotha you could imagine. he studied hard in college. He hit the gym hard. He didnt party hard and he had the absolute finest wife you could imagine. She was driven as much as he was, if not more. she wanted never to have to live in the projects.. hell she was so driven she never even wanted to live in the SUBURBS.
these were the two people you would swear would win at the game of life. they graduated, her with honors. they enroled into grad school the next semester together and took all their classes together. with plans to get married, he started working 2 jobs to stack money while they were going to grad school together.
3 years later they were married and had stacked enough money to buy the phattest house in the country, were married, she got that nice 5 series BMW and everything. this was winning… this was success.
then to make thing even better she landed a HUGE job making just over 100k at a nice company.
later on he got a job at the same company making just over 100k as well.
now this sounds perfect……. but….. homegirl had to find the only other black man in the office and start cheating. her reasoning was he was sexy because he was successful….
so at thirty years old, and having been together for fifteen years, they had to seperate. splittign up property…. cars, payments, investments 2 lawyers.
Obviously…. my boy had his wifes lover fired, they had to fire her as well after a few more months and the divorce burned away most of their money. she now lives in a small apartment, currently unemployed because of the economy.
Long story… but one thing my buddy told me was that he would rather marry the mexican cleaning lady at our job than to date another powerhungry sista who has no morals.
if the chick is ugly you can sennd her to the salon.
if the chick dosent have education you can send her to community college and get her a degree.
if the chick is fat, you can cook better food for her and send her to the gym.
if she cant dress, can buy her clothes and do the simple black dress thing all day.
one thing you cant do is teach a sista MORALS.
you can build more and have more success with a woman who will actually BE THERE in 20 years. and a woman who wont stress you to the point where your money dosent matter anymore because you want to hang yourself.
i know its long, but its important. I want you negros to wind up happily married to a model lookin doctor like I am living in sunny southern california someday
GREAT POST
@Jasmine @streetztalk– I think you pretty much said it…
In addition, it seems like the people commenting are relatively young and I can almost guarantee I'm the youngest and I definitely have the same worries. Plus, if you look at those who most would consider successful, you'd see that many of them are a little older when they hit their "peak" of success. I just completed my first official CV and it was a little thin, but then I realized i hadn't had enough time to have a 10 page CV. What I'm saying is take YOUR time, there's a lot of life and lives to live.
@RastaGirl86 – I feel like most of the people here are a lot older than you perceive.
I would like to echo my thoughts, I never said I was unsuccessful, I said i'm on track and focused. In many ways, I have had many successes, but I haven't reached that level of successful yet, because that would be very complacent for a 25 yr old.
Gottdamn! @ HNIC…
…but what you've said carries a lot of weight. Even though people try to tell you "you can't go at it alone" I think that is far from the truth—sometimes you have no choice and it's for the better.
Humh.
There's nothing wrong with parents setting expectations for their kids. But as adults we have to be able to define success for ourselves–though it's easier to define success by what our parents had in mind. The trouble comes when we allow the outside world to continue to set goals for us.
On paper, I'm very successful from the outside looking in. I went to the right schools, pledged the right sorority, still have my looks and health, got the salary, etc. But those aren't the things I ever use to define my own success. For me, success if having options, being happy and content more than I'm not, and being able to continue to enjoy today but welcome tomorrow.
HNIC:
I agree with you overall. However, it's not true that an attractive, driven woman is more likely to lack morals than the cleaning lady. I think a lot of men think that because of how the cleaning lady plays the game. She's slicker with her loose morals. She makes the man feel like he hung the moon and she's just happy he chooses to shine it on her. All the while beneath the surface, she has the same goals as the 'driven' pretty chick. But trust and believe, her morals and gold-diggery can be just as bad, if not worse than the OBVIOUS driven chick.
Morals can come in many shapes and sizes. I would add that I'm careful about driven men too. I dated this guy who reached the 6 fig mark when he was in his late 20's. I was about 26 at the time. Anyhow, he was the picture of success and responsibility. One morning I woke up and overheard him downstairs on a conference call with some of his subordinates. He was talking to them like they were trash. Then I started paying attention to how he treated people who he didn't need. Let's just say he'd pimp out his mother, sister, mother, brother, daddy, and son if it got him to where he wanted to be. Morals be damned.
An attractive driven woman """IS""" more likely to lack morals actually. but I do not want to debate that part with you all.
the point is, success is a stupid gauge. and its whats is killing this generation of black people.
Lets be real niggas a sec and talk about it like it really is.
im gonna guess 90% of the people reading this right now are middle class black folk.
and I will guess 60-70% of those CAME from a middle class household.
(this is just guessing)
so what more do you NEED for success? house car are not FAR FAR off dreams like they was for our grandparents.
its all the star chasing… 5 bed room house, 5 series BMW/ESCALADE, trips to LA, gucci sunglasses, LV boots. all that EXTRA shit to show off is what "success" is being gauged by. oh and lets not forget the size of your paycheck.
we can all say "no its not the size of your paycheck… its the amount of SUCCESS you have" but we all know thats not what we REALLY talkin about. remember me last year? I had a high level job but because of my 2 promotions my pay was capped at 200% of my former salary. So I had a high level job… but a low level pay and certain people here was saying i wasnt "successful"
so as black folk we are chasing the wrong things.
and its thinking like that , which is why I would reccomend avoiding the driven sista type. if nothing is never good enough for them in the bedroom why would it be enough for them in the BEDroom?
now I sound like a hypocrite since I am married to a fine ass french doctor with an ivy league education…. not exactly juanita the cleaning lady, but she told me at the outset that she only does her job because she is good at it and that homelife and love life were the most important thing in life to her.
some women "SAY" that, but you have to look at what a woman DOES and not just what she says.
when I was the 30 year old Single black man with 2 full time jobs, bringing home almost 2 grand a week, going to all the parties, had the body and the swagger going on… it was hard to see who the "REAL" women were and who was just there for the image.
i lost both jobs and was severely depressed and started wallowing in self pity and general anger at the unfair world. to tell you the truth, only ONE women stuck around.ONE
even the chicks who only used me as their booty call , didnt want to sleep with the kid anymore.
i had some fun times with alot of those women, and even pictured myself in long term relationships with them… but when your DONT have the image/status that they need they wont be there for you. if that was a wife… you just lost all of your "success" in a separation.
if you can take anything from my words or stories… you have to find someone who will work with you and not drive you mad, more than you have to find someone you have similar "success" goals as.
my wife looks at me the same way when she comes home from work everyday as she did when I was the man with all the swagger.
find yourself a Cookie johnson not an ivana trump,Omorosa, tracy edmonds or kimora lee.
cookie started out as the poorest out of all of these women in 1998, but is now the happiest and wealthiest now in 2009 isnt she.
food for thought.
@HNIC – Dude, people stop reading comments after the third paragraph. You need a blog. You might have missed the point, and spent a lot of time trying to make a point that wasn't the subject of this article. The post was not about success and relationships. It was about success. Self-success, success of yourself. I don't care about anyone else when it comes to that. As Stevie says, "They won't go when I go."
22. HNIC
May 20, 2009 at 3:24 pm
An attractive driven woman “”"IS”"” more likely to lack morals actually. but I do not want to debate that part with you all.
^^^
Appreciate the comments familia, but.. i have to no-sign this stateemnt. Some of them are crazy..lol.. but to single them out as moral-less? U need more demographics
HNIC:
From what you've written, it seems like YOU weren't able to accurately gauge character quality. The point I was trying to make in my second post about the guy I dated was that he had the markers of success but his character was shot to hell. Not to mention his moral bankrupt behaviors. I could have chose to ignore that first conversation I overheard. I could have but I chose not to. Does that mean I label all well to do Black men as assholes? Nerp. Not willing to paint all Black men with such a broad brush. Had I consistently dated men like that, who would I have to blame? Myself! They might have had those negative traits in common but they also would have had ME in common. I would have been choosing AND/OR attracting them.
Monetary success doesn't equal high character, morals, values, etc. Just like education doesn't mean a person knows how to 'ack'.
How do I measure success?
I think you have to measure success by the measure of the effort you induced and was it more than what you did before. I mean, even if you didn't get what you thought you wanted, if you worked hard at achieving it and respect the value of whatever it is better now, you're already successful. I've known plenty of people who may not be defined by society's standards of the house and money and the cars etc…but they WORK and have everything they need- and it's enough. If they need more school, they go get it. If the got a skill, they apply it. That's just as successful to me as a six figure income…
My regrets are that even though I work hard to use my talents, I tend to involve myself with men who have a very different outlook and ambition level. I tend to get mixed up with immature dudes who are fine with me doing all the hard work and them kicking back- not even trying to meet me halfway. It's one thing if he's trying and nothing works out- that's better than staying home playing video games all day or writing blog posts about evil women who expect too much out of men while the wife works the big job.
I find it funnny that HNIC is writing about morals when he's the one who really doesn't have any.
HNIC is a master at making excuses for himself and then blaming the women in his life for expecting more in a partner than an arrogant kid who thinks he knows it all- spouting off statistics like a malfunctioning calculator.
He married her because no one else wanted to listen to him bullshit all day about why he can't do this or can't do that and how the girl he was with for 10 years ruined him forever. He said he was incapable of love. He's just "happy" now because he can tell people he's married- that his story sounds a lot better than "I can't find a sucker who wants to put up with my bullshit"
To yell at him, he seems to enjoy it. He loves people on here coming and reacting to hat he says. He craves the attention. But if you're really ever nice to him, or show you care, he'll go on singleblackmale or comebackgirl and write bullshit about his "women"- more than half complete falsehoods..and try to make himself out to be the noble MAN who is being victimized . Try to make the woman look like the ass when it's really him.
How to I know- because most of you already "know" me according to him. Yea – it's me Miss Alaska…the one you THINK he had wrapped around his finger- the one he "kept in line" LOL- What a joke.
This is someone who can charm anybody- could get rich simply by using some of those skills of persuasion in a positive way. He's talented. He's charming. And I have always truly cared about him.
But he is no expert on morals.
I'm not frustrated with my current position in life. I work too much right now and get exhausted a lot- but I know someday I'll be able to chill a little more when my degrees are finished and certifications complete. I won't have to support my entire family because I'll be with a MAN who at least tries…Shoot at least we'll be able to stay home together in our sweet love nest while we're both getting paid for vacation days.
I meet men all the time who say they wanna know me better. Do I measure them by their success? Well I certainly am going to expect more than a nice smile and a bunch of excuses from now on…
and Jasmine- I love the quote.
I really hate that I missed this great topic yesterday. However, I ponder these questions all the time. I am in the process of obtaining a second degree to explore a brand new career in the hopes of generating a more successful, lucrative professional career that will allow me to be recognized for what I know and not what I do. I'm only 27, but I feel like I should be much further than I am in every aspect of my life. Its frustrating at times but I just know that this time that I've had out of corporate America is like someone pushing reset on my life. Basically its my opportunity to have a fresh start.
I really don't think that you are overanalyzing; its just that when you propose such analytical questions about your life it is somewhat of a Pandora's Box to even more deep philisophical questions that can make you skeptical about your past, present and future decisions regarding every aspect of your life. I have to say that reading your blog and many others has inspired me to use my current Mass Communications degree in a whole new way while I am only partially employed (due to my company closing) and to explore opportunities to use my current degree and my degree I'll be obtaining together.
I gage success by looking at whether or not I am progressing in an upward, positive manner and to what rate am I progressing. With that said, I also recognize that things happen for a reason and that God is in the plan of everything so nothing that has happened in my life is a mistake. Setbacks are setups for better opportunities or a lesson learned for the future. I don't have any regrets but there are some things that I know now that I wish I would have known a while ago. Plus, I wouldn't be the person I am without going through those "regretful" moments.
Well I've always been the overachiever. Skipping grades in elementary school and whatnot. But In high school, I just became mediocre and got by with a regular B average.
Now running 3 blogs, working 2 gigs (1 fulltime, 1 side hustle), launching <a>The Red Pump Project and writing for 3 other websites, I still don't consider myself successful. Gotta keep chugging along. When I can consider myself EXTRAORDINARY in a MEDIOCRE world is when I will know I've made it. Not quite there yet
Read this three times…it really hits home for me. Compared to many of my peers, I've accomplished quite a bit but somehow it never feels like enough. I haven't really determined my definition of success. I don't want to define my success by my career, my possessions, or even my family; so many people try to do this and are still miserable. I've always said that I just want to be "comfortable;" but I do fear that this will breed complacency. Ultimately, I long for balance, personal growth, and financial security – I don't really care about the packaging.
streetztalk : I feel you re Law #47. I don't know if I buy it, yet. But I've been thinking about it.
Re satisfaction. I'm watching you and I look forward to seeing how that philosophy works out for you. But for the moment, I don't think satisfaction is the destination. I think satisfaction is a critical element of every step taken to reach the destination.
But your journey might change my mind.
"I had a dream…"
Ah, life. I brought home those straight A's
minus that gr 8 yr that I almost flunkedin grade school, but by the time I was off to University with my scholarship, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. When I was 11, I'd decided I wanted to be a Doctor. My poor father thought it was because I wanted to follow in his footsteps, but my reasoning went more like: "If I never get married, what job would be able to hold me down financially? Hmm..Doctors make good money. Cool." By gr 12, I was sure I didn't want to touch the medical profession with a 12' pole.My Alma Mater has a reputation for royally screwing people over, and I was no exception (I did lend more than a helping hand, though). My mom had convinced me to take Psychology, and I was kinda lax, not realizing that I still needed Med school marks. #Oops. By the time I was back on track, I was frantically looking around at my options, and for the first time in my life, I stepped out of my nonchalance long enough to be depressed. Clinical Psychology? Counseling Psychology? Where would I even be accepted without a 3.8? Long story short, there were a lot of things to consider, and twice as many headaches. I changed my mind a million + 1 times. Didn't help that I didn't have a strong like for anything in particular. Le sigh. I finally decided what I want to do
last weekthough, and the cost-benefit analysis is finally working in my favor.I'm thankful to God, because I've had it good in many ways. I had a well-paying job that saw me through University (rent, food & all), and I came out this past June with only a $7K debt from 1st year that I'll be done paying by next year. 114 month amortization period? Yeah, no thanks. Rounded up at 1 job and started another the next Monday within 3 weeks of graduating. Pretty solid resume, and hopefully a bright future in front of me. Up until recently, I could only say as much as the title of this post & the song: I just want to be successful. Now, I have a more solid plan, and I'm kinda sorta giddy about the future. Would've been nice if I had stuff figured out much earlier and jumped from Undergrad to Masters, but eh!
How do you measure success? Do you have any regrets in the life path you chose? Are you frustrated with your current position in life? Am I over-analyzing?
I think I've always equated success with $$. I hardly ever pay job ads without salary tags any mind. However, my level of fulfillment will take both moula and job satisfaction into account. Just starting out on my path, but I have no regrets concerning what I chose to study. Nah, I'm straight; just hoping my plans work out. As for you, you're going to have to find a healthy medium. It's good to always aim for higher heights, but you may be setting yourself up for perpetual unrest. I'd be more inclined to set & achieve a tangible goal that I can live with. Beyond that, battle complacency but consider everything else a welcome bonus.