Where There Is a Will

No person or community was created to become a failure. Everything people need to lead fulfilling lives was generously established within the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual set-up of every individual by the Creator. What one requires is to extract the in-built capital to attain success in life. God does not have favourites. People who experience success are not made from special material. The visible differences in achievement by various people are not a result of God's design or impartiality. It is our mind-sets that greatly shape our level of progress. In trying to interrogate the subject of `success', I presented the question to people from diverse professions, gender, age groups, educational grades and social ranks. I got as many dimensions about success as the people I asked. A young man said, “Success is when you get married.” He explained that he looked forward, anxiously, to a day when he would get married and he would, at that point, consider himself to have entered the ranks of successful men. Other responses from young people included: 'success is when you get a job'; 'it is when you are promoted at work'; `when you get a salary increment'; `when you have a good car'; and `when you get a degree'. Among married couples, a woman said, "Success is when you build a family house." She explained that while she lived in the city with her husband and two children, her only prayer was for their family to acquire a private dwelling and move out of a rented flat. Other responses from the couples were: `success is when you are valued at work'; `it is when you have a stable family'; `when you have healthy children'; `when you have a lot of money'; `when you are the first in your community to acquire a particular item'. and `when your tormenter faces a misfortune'. It is clear that success means different things to different people. A young man who equates success to marriage seems to suggest that most people on earth are successful in life since they are married, apart from a few individuals such as celibate priests and nuns. The woman who relates success to a family house indirectly means that the world is primarily populated by successful beings because almost every person has an abode they call home, irrespective of fashion, location or quality. Success is emotional and can be almost totally experienced from within. It might be different from what society sees with their eyes. There are countless men and women who are materially poor but psychologically successful. A fisherman who has worked on the lake for twenty years might regard himself as successful by the mere fact that he has never drowned or run out of work all this time. At the same time, a someone may be regarded as successful, based on their visible wealth whereas they are inwardly tormented. Someone may become `successful in life' by stealing public resources. He knows, at heart, he is corrupt. He knows it is bad to be corrupt. He cannot boast about being the most corrupt individual. Therefore, corruption does not deliver psychological success. When one uses fraudulent means to attain `success', one only becomes a haunted celebrity. Prestige, wealth, brilliance and development are indicators of success only if the person who has attained them believes that they are a result of sincere effort. Success is what one achieves through honest means. Poverty, weakness or misfortune are not necessarily always indicators of failure. They can have unique value “…for power is perfect in weakness… when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).