What is After Success?

Why should we think about After success?

The human mind has a remarkable ability to imagine things that even are not there at this moment.

And success is one of them. Imagine every human being, everyone who is in college, from kindergarten to the university, has been dreaming of a successful life. But when it comes to the end of life, if you go and ask our elderly generation, what are the implications of success at the point of their life journey? They will have different stories. Some would say it is not about doing a perfect job, earning a lot of money, not even traveling, not even ruling the world with power and wealth. Sometimes at this point in life, success can even mean getting out of bed in the morning without any back pain. Or having a day without a Urinary tract infection.

So, everyone who is dreaming of success should ultimately think about what if I become successful, what is there after success? Imagine you are doing your own 3-5 job.

Does that mean success comes when you retire, when you get an increment at the end of the year or bonus? Does that mean that you are in a flow with your work, that you don't feel the time passing?

Abstract painting

But even if that is true, time is going to stop for all of us.

Let's say you are Pablo Picasso and you are drawing the life that you dreamed of on a piece of canvas. And you are very happy doing it. Plenty of people admire you. You are loving every second you live on earth. And that is successful.

Yet at the end of the day, does this mean that you are able to carry this until you are dead? and after death?

It makes enormous sense for me to think about after success rather than the success itself. Let's say there is nothing after success which I should be bothered about, that there is empty space, like a hospice or a retirement home. Then I should ask the question: why success?

Why should I tire myself to achieve things that are not even lasting till I close my eyes in 50 years?

Once you know the answers to these questions and if you know the answers to these questions now, you are ready to be successful. As now there is a purpose, or no purpose, now there is a target, or no target. Now there is a vision, or no vision. Otherwise, you are guaranteed to fail. Only if you make the utmost priority to solve the equation of life before everything else that you would be a successful person. 

Inpatient answer- why after success?

For the ones who are inpatient. Like everyone in their twenties, I have a different answer for what we should think about after success. And with good reasons. Consider you want to be wealthy and successful. Every kid dreams of it as that is the picture given to us from society. A happy healthy doctors, lawyers, engineers and pilots. Maybe things will change when we consider a developed society where they would teach children to be happy as well. But, after becoming the dream, the struggle would not end, you will have to struggle to keep the dream alive. Nobody wants to be an Engineer for a day, we need engineers working for us their entire lifetime. Nobody wants a pilot for one day, we need a pilot for each and every flight. We do not need to be a Billionaire for one day, we need to maintain our status for lifetime. Otherwise we would still be failures in life. Consider what it means, because answers to your problems can be there. A good example as follows.

Lottery

Imagine a random person winning a billion dollar lottery. Do you think he will remain a billionaire in five years? Chances are minimal. But imagine you already are a successful millionaire and you get a lottery and now, you know exactly what you are going to do with this newly achieved wealth. It is not the wealth that matters, it is what you do to keep that wealth or even grow from there. There is plenty of philosophical advice in my blog if you are willing to make a skyscraper or start to sell values. But like I said earlier, this is just a tunnel vision for newbies who cannot think about life beyond wealth and success.

Because I cannot help but notice all the millionaires, doctors and engineers of the 1800’s are not there today. Let’s be mindful about life.