I heard this saying a long time ago after I had decided to take a long sabbatical. Only the successful and sensitive people truly know that nothing fails like success. Of course, if they are less intelligent they will go on accumulating wealth, power and fame long after the glitter has gone.
In my experience “Nothing Fails like Success,” is more existentially accurate, but only for those who have at least tasted the flavour of success. If a man or woman is really successful in the world they truly feel the pain of being a failure as nobody else can. However, what happens often, is that after they have become successful in one field, the tendency to become successful in another field is equally tempting.
The saying “Nothing Succeeds like Success,” only feels to be true to those who have never tasted success, however if a person wants to really feel what it is like, they first need to succeed and that is the problem.
Consequently, you see so many people’s desire system being triggered by some success story and they too hanker to know what it is like to have this feeling- the feeling of success. And the dilemma is that you cannot know it unless you have succeeded. As humans we all admire those who can either do or achieve things we can only dream about, like multi-millionaires, great artists, musicians, singers, rock stars and others of distinction.
When you have all the money in the world, or at the very least enough to satisfy your desires (as if you can really do that), and you’re a little intelligent and sensitive, you will feel absolutely empty and unfulfilled inside, unless you become creative.
When everything is there that you thought would have made you happy, everything for which you had worked so hard, dreamed about and wished for, you will have such a deep pain inside that the first temptation will be to fill up the empty black hole in your stomach.
The reason is that everything on the outside becomes the context against which you will feel even more hollow and meaningless, in fact like a beggar. At this stage, most people go off and give away their money and start charities all of which are noble and wonderful things to do, but they will have missed the moment when they could have come to a still place inside and discovered “the peace which passeth understanding.” In any event, usually the giving away of the money is to atone for all the things they have done to get it.
After all, what was the point of devoting so much effort and energy to the accumulation? If I were a gambling man, I’d say most are doing it with some vague idea that their life will be better because they have succeeded at achieving that which they thought would make them happy.
I love many things about Steve Jobs and the passion he brought to the world. He said words to the effect that “what’s the point of living unless you make a dent in the universe.” Ironically, it was only towards his death that he was handing out books on the Alchemy of Yoga and meditation, when he had realised that the journey is to somehow make a dent in yourself.
Image Credit-FreeImages.com-Sigurd Decroos
Chris Borrett
If you loved this article, I also recommend visiting the blog of a great writer and friend, Karin Sebelin. Karin also inspires people to become a successful entrepreneur or brand.