Family and Son Essay

Success can be a rather abstract term and it can mean very different things to different people. Trying to define what success is is not easy. To most people, success means achieving a goal. In order to achieve a goal, a person usually has to work hard and believe in himself. Being successful at what you do can also be very motivating. People who are successful in one project, tend to be more successful in other projects. This is because they get the feeling that their hard work pays off and that a goal is worth their time and effort. Success usually goes hand in hand with appreciation. If someone we know succeeds at what he or she does, we will most certainly congratulate them. This will make them feel good and motivate them even further. To some people, success means being the best at what they do. Another truth about success is that it can create envy. If you are good at what you do, others will want to be good at the same thing, and if they are not as good as you, they will envy you. This means that success can create a bitter taste in your mouth, because instead of being happy about your achievements, people are mean to you. In this case it is important not to forget that you have done well and that there are many other people who appreciate what you have done. Just think about it this way: if people envy you, you have done something right. And if you are lucky, the envious people will see your success as a means of motivation for achieving their own goals. Success means more to some people than to others. Some want to be successful by all means, others are satisfied by simply trying and giving their best, whether they succeed or not. The secret of success! A young man asked Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, the secret of Success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him toward the river. When the water got up to their necks, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The man struggled to get out but Socrates was strong and kept him under water until he started turning blue. The young man struggled hard and finally managed to get up. The first thing he did was to gasp and take a deep breath. Socrates asked, â€Å"What did you want the most when you were under the water?† The man replied â€Å"Air†. Socrates said: â€Å"That’s the most secret to success. When you want success as badly as you want air, you will get it. There is no other secret†. Reflection: A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishments. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results†¦ Hard Work Bring’s Success. There once lived a rich businessman who had a lazy and fun loving son. The businessman wanted his son to be hard-working and responsible. He wanted him to realize the value of labour. One day he summoned his son and said: â€Å"Today, I want you to go out and earn something, failing which you won’t have your meals tonight.† The boy was callous and not used to any kind of work. This demand by his father scared him and he went crying straight to his mother. Her heart melted at the sight of tears in her son’s eyes. She grew restless. In a bid to help him she gave him a gold coin. In the evening when the father asked his son what he had earned, the son promptly presented him the gold coin. The father then asked him to throw it into a well. The son did as he was told. The father was a man of wisdom and experience and guessed that the source of the gold coin was the boy’s mother. The next day he sent his wife to her parent’s town and asked his son to go and earn something with the threat of being denied the night meals if he failed. This time he went crying to his sister who sympathized with him and gave him a rupee coin out of her own savings. When his father asked him what he had earned the boy tossed the rupee coin at him. The father again asked him to throw it in a well. The son did it quite readily. Again the father’s wisdom told him that the rupee coin was not earned by his son. He then sent his daughter to her in-laws’ house. He again asked his son to go out and earn with the threat that he shall not have anything for dinner that night. This time since there was no one to help him out; the son was forced to go to the market in search of work. One of the shopkeepers there told him that he would pay him two rupees if he carried his trunk to his house. The rich man’s son could not refuse and was drenched in sweat by the time he finished the job. His feet were trembling and his neck and back were aching. There were rashes on his back. As he returned home and produced the two rupee note before his father and was asked to throw it into the well, the horrified son almost cried out. He could not imagine throwing his hard-earned money like this. He said amid sobbing: â€Å"Father! My entire body is aching. My back has rashes and you are asking me to throw the money into the well.† At this the businessman smiled. He told him that one feels the pain only when the fruits of hard labour are wasted. On earlier two occasions he was helped by his mother and sister and therefore had no pain in throwing the coins into the well. The son had now realized the value of hard work. He vowed never to be lazy and safe keep the father’s wealth. The father handed over the keys of his shop to the son and promised to guide him through the rest of the life.