A Closer Look at What Success Means

One of the world’s top thought leaders, Earl Nightingale had a wonderful definition of what success is. His thought was that “Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.” By first glance, it is completely acceptable and true. Success isn’t an end to something; it is the steps you take to get to a desired outcome. With a deeper look at the statement, it is important to look at all the aspects that make up success. Let’s take a look at this statement in a closer way. What does Success really mean?

First, let’s look at the word Progressive. In order to truly understand this wise statement, it is important to break it down. Progressive is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as moving forward, advocating new ideas or methods, indicating action is going on. Now, in regards to success let’s compare the word progressive and how it works with success.

In success are you moving forward? Yes, with success there is a clear acknowledgment that a person has gone from one place to a bigger place (or higher level). A painting artist would be a great example. They must first learn their skill or fine tune their talent before they can complete a masterpiece. Once they have the skills or talent in place, they begin to start the masterpiece with a finished painting in mind. Hence, they are moving forward.

With success you are advocating new ideas or methods by sharing those with others. Take the artist again. What part of their success is advocating a new method or idea? It is when they have completed their work and put it out for the consumer to purchase. It isn’t the purchase that is successful, although that is a piece of a monetary gain that can present itself as success. It is the product completion and standing behind it with a belief it is awesome and then allowing others to embrace it. They are advocating their painting or idea and making it available to the public.

The part of progression that states action is indicated and going on, is also present when you look at someone who is successful. Donald Trump is very successful in business. If you watch him, you will see that he is always looking for something new to explore or build. He is always taking action on what it is he wants. Sometimes he doesn’t make money at those ventures but he certainly takes action. So, in regards to the word progressive, it is absolutely in alignment with success.

The next word in Earl’s statement, is the word realization. Let’s look at what that means. Webster states it means to understand or have comprehension. With the word realization and success it would be easy to recognize that they too are in alignment. To be successful you must understand what it is you want, what you consider to be a success. For the artist, he is looking to create a beautiful piece and have someone appreciate it so much that they are willing to pay for it. The money exchange is a form of gratitude from the consumer to the artist. It is a way of saying “thank you for creating this for me.” Now that feels good, doesn’t it! The artist absolutely has a comprehension of what it is going to take to get the idea, paint it, and then make it available to the public. So once again, Earl’s words are in direct correlation of what success is.

Moving on to worthy, what does worthy mean to you? Webster’s Dictionary states it means deserving respect. How does deserving respect play into success? Worthy in regards to success is something that is going to stimulate and help the person to reach higher. Look at the artist again, what is worthy about painting or wanting to paint? It takes a highly creative person to paint something that someone else would be willing to exchange money for or give gratitude to. Painting is a process that stimulates the artist to reach higher. They finish a painting and strive to create a new vision or a new masterpiece, bigger and more creative than the first. They are wonderful at what they do and that is by all means deserving of respect. Worthy and success definitely are connected as well!

The final word in the statement of success is ideal. Ideal is described in Webster’s dictionary as a standard of perfection, beauty, or excellence. To describe success there is a feeling that alone feels like excellence. This is the outcome part of the word success. To complete the final masterpiece the artist must feel that it is beautiful or excellent or they wouldn’t put it out to the world to see. Most people want to be recognized by the good that they do. Putting something out that is less than your standard is not perfection, beautiful, or excellent. What ideal do you have? When you think of it, is there and outcome that it awesome or is it just mediocre? Think about it, if it is mediocre make it awesome and you be well on your way to success.

To recap the statement, “Success is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal” and by looking closer to the definitions of each word, it looks that all point to a part of success. With looking closer and breaking it down, there really isn’t a better way to describe success. Success is every part of creating what you want. Success is the journey to the desired outcome and therefore it is a progressive realization of a worthy ideal.