Something to Ponder

" Failure doesn't mean you are a failure, its just that you haven't succeeded yet."

But when you finally succeed, what comes next? Does it mean a perfect life free from misery, failure and problems which are inevitable as night and day? Does being successful separates us from the cruelty that often comes hand in hand with failure and losing? I sometimes wish we'll all be able to make it. But don't you think its too boring? In the real world, there's this bunch who the society dubbed as successful. And on the other half of the earth, we losers reign supreme. And not for the reason that we haven't achieved any, or we're not making it big in the industry of superficial beings. Its just that neither one of us know what this success thing is all about.

I remember a conversation with a friend during a walk down the streets of Makati one cloudy afternoon in July. We were looking past expensive cars parked along the sidewalks, people sipping a cup of coffee dressed in seemingly designer clothes. I came upon these questions. How do we define success? How can one say that he or she is successful? Is it exactly how the media and the society created it to be? My friend and I are both pissed off by the idea that success means having a luxurious looking car, a house that resembles the white house or our very own Malacanang palace, numerous popular friends who need to socialize every now and then to prove their self-worth...what else? I am very sure that by now, you already have your share of the picture about this so called "successful people"... But how about us? How about the majority of us who pitty ourselves because we believe those things. For the fortunates, success probably mean a once in a lifetime life changing event. But for the unfortunates, it is an everyday experience... an everyday challenge to do better. Success is being able to achieve something you aspire, be it big or small. Success is finding happiness by knowing you have given your best shot, no matter you how many times you almost failed. Success is waking up evryday with a goal in mind and sleeping at night knowing you are one step closer to that goal. It is indeed a state of mind. Its in little things we do that molds us. Its an experience that encourage us to not stop when we reach the finish line, but to continue to work harder even after the race,because life after all, is a race where you have to keep on running and winning and losing and starting all over again from scratch. Do I envy those people who are "successful" because they have everything? Not at all...anyway, as the saying goes: He who has the most toys... still dies.