Saying that one wants «to be someone in life» is one of the first ideas that, between parental flatteries and relatives’ comments, gets configured in our minds. We have to learn to distinguish between being someone known, with fame, a public figure; between being a contributor to the society, with great accomplishments or discoveries, or brandishing verb and soul in defense of the rights of people, and being, expressing it as the American writer Bessie Stanley, a successful person.
Success
He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
Watch out! These kinds of success are not mutually exclusive. As of today, who has never heard of names that go from Plato and his contemporaries to Eduardo Galeano, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs o Stephen Hawking. Philosophers , authors, great rulers, inventors, politicians, activists , scientists, historians … and a recent plethora coming from music, films and television. Even in our occi-centric (lack of) culture we get to hear names like Confucius, Gandhi, Lao Tzu o Tagore. Sometimes even some of the things they said or wrote!
But the thing is, what does it happen to all those heroes that his world has seen go through and whos names and acts lie besides their grave. Is history free of artists ignored, silenced fighters , projects that could not be done..? And what about all those wonderful wives and husbands, fantastic parents , teachers that awake one’s desire to learn and real friends, have they never existed? Have they enjoyed the same recognition that others had? No, they did not. Did they stopped doing what they were doing beceause od that? No, they neither did that. As long as you are doing what you want and not what you have, you are capable of knowing yourself to the point of being able to say «this is what I am going to do», you plant the right seeds and look after them… as long as you do not forget the job of being happy… Anyone able to accomplish that is going «to be someone in life», will enjoy «success», no doubt. With or without fame, being or not recognised by all ohters and written down in history books.
Robert Louis Stevenson said: «So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend». Do smile, do love, do enjoy life as it is, and thus, you will be someone succesful.
AIXÒ ÉS COM TOT 