{"id":16928,"date":"2026-04-06T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/?p=16928"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:09:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:09:57","slug":"what-is-success-many-get-it-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/holistic.news\/en\/what-is-success-many-get-it-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Deceptive Word in the World. So Many Fall for It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What Is Success, Really?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Each of us intuitively \u201cknows\u201d what success is<\/strong>\u2014at least until we try to define it seriously. Is it the number of zeroes in a bank account, a prestigious job title in an email signature, a smile on your face, or perhaps a peaceful night\u2019s sleep? What if, for one person, success means a corporate promotion, while for another it means the courage to walk away from that very same corporation? And can we honestly say that one of those achievements is greater than the other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no single answer<\/strong> to those questions, because success is not a fact. It is an experience. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s The Great Gatsby<\/em>, stands as a perfect example of what society tends to recognise as objective success. He rises from poverty to wealth, throws lavish parties at his mansion on Long Island and surrounds himself with luxury and beauty. From the outside, everything looks ideal: money, status, women and cars.<\/strong> For most people around him, Gatsby has succeeded. He seems to embody the American Dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Success Exist Without Happiness?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But Fitzgerald exposes the emptiness of that definition with brutal clarity. Wealth brings Gatsby neither happiness nor fulfilment<\/a>. On the contrary, it makes him lonely and tragic<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that\u2019s no matter\u2014tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning\u2014So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The Great Gatsby<\/em> is the story of a man who gathered all the outward signs of success and still failed to attain what he truly desired: real love and inner peace. Fitzgerald suggests, then, that success cannot be measured objectively<\/strong>. A person may \u201cwin\u201d by social standards and still lose their own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

External success\u2014even at its highest level\u2014is not the same as happiness.<\/strong> As Fitzgerald implies, you can appear victorious in the eyes of others and remain the unhappiest person in your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Less Mean More?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the opposite pole stands Henry David Thoreau, who does the exact reverse of Gatsby. In Walden; or, Life in the Woods<\/em>, he willingly gives up the usual signs of success\u2014career stability and comfort\u2014and moves into a small cabin by a pond. For the inhabitants of Concord, he looks like a symbol of failure: a man without ambition, property or social position. He himself, however, sees that \u201cfailure\u201d as his greatest victory<\/strong>. He chooses simplicity, silence, contact with nature and a deliberate way of living. He does not want to chase what others call success. He wants to live for real:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For Thoreau, success means inner fulfilment and happiness<\/strong>. It means the daily experience of presence, awareness and freedom from social expectations. What the world calls failure\u2014no career, no money, no visible achievements\u2014he sees as victory over illusion. For him, a happy and fulfilled life is the only thing that truly matters. In his view, the answer to what is success<\/strong> shifts from the field of \u201cwhat have I achieved?\u201d to \u201cam I living in the way I believe is right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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