Philosophy Essay Sample on Success

When you ask people what their goals are for the future, a vast majority of them would say “I want to be successful.” Or something along those lines. Many may say that they desire success, but what exactly is the success they seek? Is it success in their career? Success in their love life? What is success and what does it mean to be successful? 

When I look into the future I want to be successful, like most. When I picture the time ahead of me clearly in my mind, I see myself happy. I desire to be happy with who I am and the life I am living. To live a successful life is to live a happy life. At least that’s my definition. Life is something that you only experience once, therefore I would like  to be happy and full of life. Happiness is something I wish to achieve. Furthermore, when I am truly pleased, when I am not just a shell of the person I want to be,  I have lived a successful and fulfilling life. 

Some might say that successfulness is the things you do, not who you are. Perhaps they will say that successfulness will only come with grueling hard work. Along with hard work will come success in the things you do. Maybe by studying for hours you will be successful in your latest math test. Or by constantly perfecting your resume you will get the best job. However I’d argue that by being perfect at the things you do, are you living a successful life? Sure you make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, for all that are you living the life you wanted if you are miserable? If you are miserably sinking in those dollars and those fancy parties, are you living that dream life full of success and joy? Is the money worth the sorrow? The dejection? Personally, it isn’t worth it. 

However you could be saying that money does bring happiness and that having the luxuries in life does make you happy. Yes, in theory money can buy you the things that make you happy, in spite of that the things that money can purchase are fleeting. The food you buy will not always stay in your stomach. The clothes you wear will slowly wither away with the years. The makeup on your face will expire nonetheless. Everything on this earth, not limited to inanimate objects, will disappear without a trace. When we are no longer on this earth do you wanna die being genuinely happy or die with the things that made you happy? 

With this in mind I believe I have shown concrete evidence to what it means to be successful. In any case I do believe that the vanishing things we own in our miniscule lives can bring us contentment. In spite of that, the contentment we feel is only a short-lived feeling, while the satisfaction from true happiness lives forever. After all, how long can success truly linger?