Success

When people speak of “success”, they generally mean a position of importance in the world’s eyes, or a job that yields lots of money and all the material pleasures and comforts that implies.

But success, in terms of the deeper issue of vocation, is a highly individual thing that means different things to different people. Success in this more profound sense is linked with an individual’s capacity to express in the outer world the values and ideals which matter most in the inner world. Seen in this way, success may not involve money or position at all; for it depends on a quality of inner loyalty and integrity, and reflects the real essence of individuality rather than a common consensus based on superficial, social or material concerns.

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people.

But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane.

And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

David W. Orr