The movie celebrities often say that they don’t have personal freedom, and they wish they could be normal persons while they are chased by paparazzi. However, if they are not famous, who will care about them and report their daily lives? Often, we hear the politicians say they finally can stay home and enjoy spending time with their wife and children when they lost their election. Then, years later, when they have second chance they would run in the election again without any hesitation. Those are two examples of what we call successful persons. Therefore, I don’t agree with the statement that the most successful person is a man who was loved by his family, respected by his friend, worked hard and had a full life. I don’t think the CEO would agree to change places with the gardener, neither would I.
Let’s look at the definition of success from Wikipedia. The meanings of success are (a) A level of social status, (b) Achievement of an objective/goal, and (c) The opposite of failure. Many of us define success in term of how society and culture define it, and some define success in terms of what we have accomplished so far in life. To many people, a successful person should be a person who can attain wealth, position, power, honors, or the like. To me, a successful person should be loved and respected not only by his family and friends but also by a larger scale of people, such as the community he/she lives. A successful person means one should have a certain amount of fame. One is known not only by his family or friends but also by a certain amount of people, people who are in the same specialty area or community, Or on a larger scale, to be known by people from the native nation or foreign nations. In addition to that, a successful person means one might not be a millionaire, but at least should hold a certain amount of money. One can provide a comfortable accommodation for his family and still have some extra money to buy what one try to buy. A successful person means one should have a respectful job. However, it is because he wants to have a job rather than he has to have a job. A successful person should have something to contribute to the society and have a kind of influential power. For example, the famous golf player, Tiger Wood, or the Microsoft inventor, Bill Gates, are successful persons by most socio-economic standards.
To me, the gardener described in number 2 might be a happy person because he was loved by his family and respected by his friends. However, happiness doesn’t equal to success. Based on the definition from the dictionary and my personal view, the gardener is far beyond a successful person because his social circle is only focused on his family and friends. He worked hard and had a full life. However, working hard doesn’t necessarily make a person successful. Many people devote their time to miscellaneous tasks without making big achievements in life. Is the CEO willing to exchange position with the gardener? I don’t think so. A CEO has a great deal of power, who has great authority on his employees and can make a lot of contributions to his company. He has fame, position, and wealth. In contrast, a gardener has less influential power than a CEO and might live in a poor life. As the example of movie celebrities and politicians I mentioned earlier, Would anyone think those two types of persons like to change their position with others, such as a gardener?
In conclusion, it’s not up to the individuals to be a CEO or a gardener; if I have choice I would rather be a CEO with a busy but wealthy life.
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