SUCCESS AND FAILURE

According to dictionary the meaning of the word 'success' is 'The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.' The aim and purpose have no restrictions; can be anything. However, when we say that someone is a successful person, we wish to add that he is a man of good deeds. While traveling through time, people and places, we can find that the meaning changes and can even contradict. Success of an individual can be the failure of the society. Success of a thief is the failure of the police.

History has praised many as successful human. Alexander the Great is called a successful emperor. But, the scale by which Alexander's success was measured yesterday is not the one used today. What was the great emperor's success? He had slaughtered countless number of human beings and destroyed many countries built over centuries. In today's terms he had committed dacoities and murders.

During different periods of time Roman emperor Nero, Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and the like we're looked at as successful people. The scale is certainly changed now. It may be changed further tomorrow.

No woman on earth can aspire for a more successful life than that of Cleopatra. She was the queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Above all she was enviably beautiful too. Despite all these she committed suicide. Though she might be a successful woman for the world she was not successful for herself.

Double amputee Oscar Pistorius have won gold medal four times in Paralympics. The world cheered him for his grand success but today he is behind bars for the murder of his girl friend. He is a man of success or failure or both?

It can be, therefore, asserted that there is nothing like success and failure in life. Success and failure are nothing but variable interpretations of completed human actions.

K V George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com