Pg 145 second draft 200601024 Noh Young Sun

The Formula of Success             B.C. Forbes once said, "The man who has done his level best…is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure." Personally, I do not appreciate the word success. More often than not, it is associated with fortune, fame, competition, the ability to one-up people around you...all the things that I do not necessarily put high on a pedestal. People in general tend to view end- results as a barometer of success. When they visualize this concept, they often think of high profile figures such as Steven Jobs and Bill Gates and their life altering inventions. Certainly, they are men of success, but this general perception that people have about this word is a bit disturbing and upsetting to me, because I am under the impression that this make lives of ordinary people seem like good-for-nothing, dull, mundane set routine spent mostly wishing to be in the shoes of those big names that make the covers of numerous magazines. Are people leading ordinary lives all failures? Should we classify only those whose name will go down the history as a success? We all know that the answer is a big fat no! My own definition of success is a bit different. In my view, successful people are not only those in the limelight, but also the ones who lead a full-filling life for themselves as well as for others and feel privileged for whatever they have. Having said that, the ingredients in the formula of success is the willingness to do his or her own part in society and better yet for the world and the ability to count blessings in life.          One ingredient in the formula of success is doing one's share of contributing to society. People that I consider to be successful do not center their interest only around themselves. They are not trapped in their own world. Not only do they strive to know themselves, they also make great efforts to learn about those around them. Moreover, they always try to be sensitive to other people's needs, thus certainly not those who are piling more and more food on their plates. They share what they have with the world hoping that their small acts of kindness, care and affection will make a difference in the world someday. Most importantly, they know this will bring them contentment and happiness and make them feel worth  like a million bucks. For a case in point, I am interested in fair trade, so I buy fair trade chocolate and coffee on regular basis. I am fully aware that buying fair trade products can help farmers in the third-world countries lead decent lives, weed out child labor and ensure the right to education for children. Another ingredient in the formula of success is the positive attitude towards life. People who are in the right direction of a successful life have an eye for discerning privileges among ordinary things that others might take for granted. Some of them may consider going to school, taking classes spending their time in a library absorbing themselves in books to be a privilege. Others probably view having enough money to bring home the bacon as a blessing. Some others may think of having family members and close friends who believe in them and support them through thick and thin as a privilege. Without this kind of positive attitude, there is no way you can fill up the gap inside of us that keeps getting bigger by the minute making your life undesirable even if you drive a SUV and live in a gigantic mansion.         Just like Albert Einstein said, I wish, with all my heart, to become an individual who strive "not  to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." I believe that making the world a better place to live through small actions such as buying fair trade products on my part and a sense of gratitude towards life will make me a person of value and I call it success. I hope to have the courage and the unwavering determination to become the person  I believe I am meant to be while considering these two ingredients. Twenty or thirty years down the road, it should be me who will classify my life as a success or a failure, certainly not others.