by JD

The Goal

Disclaimer: Proceed only if you do not believe in “Everything is lust and mirage (Sab moh maya hai)”.

 

We all know how we are born (I know, they forgot to wear the protection), but for a moment let’s think about the “why” part – the meaning of life.

I don’t know if you remember it or not, when you were a kid, elders used to ask “what do you wanna become when you grow up?” and we used to say – Doctor, engineer, lawyer, bus conductor, blah blah. And the answer to the question changed with time. But one thing always remained constant – whatever it is, we just want to be successful. So the interim conclusion is “The goal of life is to be successful”. Success is something that everybody wants in life, but what is success? What are the parameters to measure success?

I have listed few people who are / were extremely successful in their life.

  • Bill Gates viz. Money – The Richest person in the world with net worth of 79.2 billion USD (I can’t even imagine what I would have done if I had 79 billion, I wish I had at least the remaining 0.2)
  • Vladimir Putin viz. Power – “Forgiveness is between them and God. It’s my job to arrange the meeting.” You don’t get to say something like this on a television unless your name is Vladimir Putin
  • Mahatma Gandhi viz. Respect – Father of the nation, India. He has his face on Indian currency (I dream of that every single night)
  • Shrikant Jichkar viz. Education – The most qualified person of India (I think I would exceed the word limit if I mention his educational qualification)
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger viz. Strength – Won the  Mr. Universe title at the age of 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times
  • Lionel Messi viz. Skill – One of the greatest footballer of all time and winner of FIFA world player of the year five times
  • Stephen Hawking viz. IQ – Paralyzed and has an IQ level of 160, yet he is the man who helped the humanity to understand the universe.
  • Charles Babbage viz. Invention –Father of the computer. Can you even imagine the world without computers? (Boy, we have too many fathers in this list)
  • Vasco da Gama viz. Discovery – First European to reach India by sea, linking Europe and Asia for the first time.
  • Brad Pitt viz. Sexy wife – Behind every successful man there is a woman

Okay, now, how did you arrive at a conclusion that these men are successful? They never said themselves that they are successful; it was always the others who judged whether they are successful or not. Oh, you think the metrics which I used describe success!

Now I am gonna put my wild card on the table. Consider a common man who was not a billionaire, politician, revolutionary or a genius, was he successful? First thought – Hell No (he did not even wham Angelina Jolie).

But what if I say – the man lived his life to the fullest without any regrets, he cherished his life, he had few loved ones who were always on his side, he had done the right thing to the people who crossed his life, he was healthy and happy doing what he was doing; he did what he always wanted to do. Now, what would you say – was he successful? Think about it.

 

P.S: I believe, I deserve a Nobel Prize for answering the biggest question of all time! 😛

In case if you are wondering, I was not high when I wrote this 😀  Jai “dev” Gurudev.

INDEX: 01 10

71 thoughts on “The Goal”

  1. I agree with the concept. Though I believe thats the same criteria for everything. For eg: From my perspective, most days are adventurous and amazing. Exciting. But the incidents if judged on a very neutral absolute reality platform (if it can ever be done) might not be adventurous. I mean, for someone else my day might seem very ordinary, boring even. Its your perspective that makes the difference. Relating to your 2 D Gandhi post, if I believe earning a lot of money will give me happiness, then not having the time or health or energy to spend them wont matter to me. Just the act of earning it will make me feel happy and content and satisfied. Then who is to say I am not Zen like in my understanding of life? Alle? 😉
    PS: Why Messi for skill over say Ronaldinho? Wasnt he more skillful, just less successful?

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    1. Its just a matter of perspective. Iyalu Malayali ano?

      P.S. It would have been less controversial if I would have changed the sport and mentioned Sachin instead of Messi 😛

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      4. I would say, though these comments are on my website, the views expressed above are only that of the visitors. And I am not responsible for it. *AndIWipeMyHandsOff*

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  7. you will always win if you do what you love without regrets. I only regret one thing. Dropping out of Stanford as a junior because they had no theatre arts or journalism department of note. But…I ended up a big ol alternative music disc jockey and actor in commercials and now am a writer so the regrets are maybe not needed.

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  8. Definitely worth the read. Success for me is not only the things that we accomplished, either by money we accumulated in the bank, or the fame we get. Success for me is the things that we want in life and slowly making them with happiness. Something that you enjoy to do, and that’s for me is a success.

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  14. Reblogged this on From guestwriters and commented:
    Many of us dream to be successful. Most of us think glory and being very well known will bring luck. But they might be mistaken by that.

    Those listed few people who are/were extremely successful in their life had many battles to win and not always had it very easy to reach the top or have the fame they may receive now. It is also impossible for us to know if they are really happy with their life and feel blessed and are feeling lucky.

    Can we be sure they reached the dream or got what they hoped for? Perhaps they had other aspirations and many of them for sure still have much wider dreams and want to do so much more. For many of them their goal is not at all reached, though we may think they got at their end point or that they reached the unreachable.

    Luck and successfulness should be investigated and questioned and not always go together. Many seemingly very successfully people where very unhappy and still found themselves not successful.

    What is it we want to strive for and how do we want to built up our successfulness. When do we consider ourselves successful? what is being successful?
    Is having fame the same as being successful? Do know that television and showbiz people may at one moment being renown, but very soon their fame begins to tarnish when their name is not any more on the role. Many spectators look up at those people who they call famous or ‘world renowned’ though they even are not yet known by many in their own region. It is all relative. Celebrities may be in the picture a lot, but that does not secure their success nor their happiness. The local heroes or today’s celebrities or the forgotten ones of tomorrow.

    Those working hard in the shade, all those unknown by many may be trying to make something of their life, and perhaps many of them are more successful in reaching their goal. Best is that they all try to be happy with what they have and can get and not loose their faith in their dreams.

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      3. Also, what we should do, is sell the statue of Liberty for Scrap Metal, use it to put up a massive Sculpture of You. I am going to be sure to get a descendant of Michelangelo to work on it. All in good time, 🙂

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  17. A rollicking Successful read. Thank you.
    I also believe that for many as we age and mature our definitions of what constitutes success change. 🌵

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  18. “Everything is lust and mirage” It is for many, if not most. Fame would be a PITA.

    New challenges keep me happy. Success is a crop of collards, a minor one. Turns out they’re easy, oranges in Maine is a whole other story. Success is figuring out how to keep your chickens alive through the winter without electricity. That one took some time, you get one experiment a year.

    I imagine the successful you mention strove for excellence. Fame probably interferes with that.

    Success is learning, at least for me.

    Thought provoking post. Thank you.

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  21. So am I to take from this that your goal is to become successful? Success is as you have illustrated measured in many different ways. I think it is better to want love, joy and peace and hopefully within that everything else in life will fall into place ❤️

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  24. Many who are successful in public life are abject failures in private. This may even be the cause of them seeking fame in the first place. Or else success they don’t seek can wreck their lives. That said, I’d still quite like to be famous. Thoughtful post, will follow. Thanks for following mine.

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