What does the word “success” mean for you? When you look around and think of someone as a highly successful person, what criteria do you have in mind to come to that conclusion?
Re: Professional Success ..
Someone who enjoys whatever he/she is doing. A good pay on top of that would be an added bonus, but to me that's not the main criteria.
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Umer, see if we go by the logic that someone who is enjoy what they do ... we might get an example of a telesales agent, who might be loving what he/she does and getting a relevant salary for it. But will he / she be seen as a professionally successful person? I highly doubt so ... know what i mean?
Re: Professional Success ..
I personally feel , someone who has achieved alot more in much lesser time is seen as a successful person.. for example, I was once working on a project for a big 4 accountancy firm and there were three senior partners I was dealing with, two of them were nearly 20-25 years exeperienced , while one seemed considerably younger , I think he had about 14 years of experience..
My thought process regards his success : he must have been an exceptionally good and highly skilled professional to have attained such a position in such a short time 
Re: Professional Success ..
Umer, see if we go by the logic that someone who is enjoy what they do ... we might get an example of a telesales agent, who might be loving what he/she does and getting a relevant salary for it. But will he / she be seen as a professionally successful person? I highly doubt so ... know what i mean?
To me a telesales agent who loves what he is doing is more successful than a CEO who hates his job.
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hmmm , thanks for clarifying that Umer , sounds good 
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For me, it's a job that pays well, allows me to make an impact in what I do, and brings me satisfaction.
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I think being able to utilize ur talent at a maximum level is sucess.
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In my opinion success should make satisfy the inner you and your mind as sometimes very people with very successful career wise lack satisfaction.
Re: Professional Success ..
Umer, see if we go by the logic that someone who is enjoy what they do ... we might get an example of a telesales agent, who might be loving what he/she does and getting a relevant salary for it. But will he / she be seen as a professionally successful person? I highly doubt so ... know what i mean?
Maybe true CB. But the question was what does professional success mean to each of us.nit criterion for telesales agent is loving what he she does that for him her it is success. Matters little to that person how he is perceived by others.
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Contentment.
Re: Professional Success ..
[quote="Chicken_Biryani, post:51, topic:272320"]
What does the word "success" mean for you? When you look around and think of someone as a highly successful person, what criteria do you have in mind to come to that conclusion?/QUOTE]
Guys, this bold part was my question .. realistically speaking we dont grade everyone a success around us .. they may all be doing great in their individual lives but there is always only going to be a numbered few who are considered a true success ..
Contentment, being in an ordinary role and happy etc are personal individual successes .. but I dont think I can claim that a junior admin worker in a school admin department who seems to be very happy/content with his job , is someone I can look upto or claim that he is an epitome of success for me ..
Hence my question is when you look around and see someone gain that recognition and success to the level that is beyond their individual successes .. what criteria do you have in mind that makes you judge their success ..
For example, we see a businessman who is deemed to be an epitome of success by many .. some may say, he is successful coz he is making alot of money out of minimum resources .. some others might say, he has the entrepreneurial mind and with his vision he has turned the business into a highly profitable one is less then two years .. etc etc ..
This is what i am trying to find out , what separates an ordinary man's success from a highly successful man's success?
Re: Professional Success ..
Fair point.
For me, a person who makes a difference at any level is successful. If that junior school administrator is doing his job well, it makes a huge difference. For a system to run well, people at ALL levels have to take pride in their jobs and do it diligently.
A janitor who scrubs the toilet with sincerity is as important to the organization as any other worker.
A CEO who goes on an acquisition spree w/o regard to price paid can appear successful but destroys shareholder value in the long run (Cisco is an example)
A CEO who cuts the bottom 10% off just because, sheds successful business and takes on risky ones, worries more about smoothness of quarterly earnings may gain success in the eyes of many but is destructive long term ( Jack Welch).
A boss who takes credit for the work of his juniors may appear successful, but destroys morale in long run.
So to me the successful person is one who plays by the rules, tries his ash off, gets up each time he is knocked down, does his best.
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Also,some people have great luck.
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^ luck alone can never ever be the lone factor in one's bigger successes , it can be in smaller successes ..
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^ Agreed with that. :k:
Re: Professional Success ..
What does the word "success" mean for you? When you look around and think of someone as a highly successful person, what criteria do you have in mind to come to that conclusion?
This is a debatable topic according to some people but I think that money is never enough so that cannot be a basis to evaluate someone success or failure. So as long as you are able to pay your bills, meet your necessities, save some amount and feel happy about the work you do, you are a success.
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Its never about money Eastern, its more about how people create extraordinary opportunities for themselves by utilizing and enhancing their skill set, using their intelligence and resources to obtain what any other Tom and harry cant achieve ..
I feel its very ordinary success that one is paying the bills, meeting necessities and happy with work .. thats more like living an average life .. whats extraordinary about it? nothing really, majority people are doing the same ..
But there will only handful few who truly cross the boundaries and challenge themselves to rise higher then the average .. that is real success ..
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you know chicken biryani (feels so weird to use that for your name here lol) but i have been reading a lot of your posts and absolutely admire your way of thinking (atleast your opinions based on threads in GS). one of our friends just recently made a life altering decision to go back to school for medicine at 30 and inshallah he will succeed in his quest. but he is getting so much flak for it from the desi perspective because he has to leave his widowed father behind for a couple of years with other family. people are calling him selfish and irresponsible but i think your comments above puts it right back in to perspective for people who would want to see it that way.
maybe i should of opened that thread in this forum, i forgot about this one.
Re: Professional Success ..
thanks S&S .. I remember commenting on that thread ..
I have been fortunate enough to have worked with bosses from hell ! At the time i used to feel jinxed but now years later I realize those are the bosses that truely taught me how to separate ordinary success from extraordinary success .
Most people live happily with an average success in mind. there are only going to be a handful few who will be able to see true potential and achieve extra heights .. and they are only able to see that because their outlook to life, their expectations from themselves are much higher then many of us …
one of my bosses from hell used to say to me , if people talk about you (positively ofcourse) when you enter a room , it means you are getting somewhere .. if you are unknown despite being around for ages , then god help you !
Those were some golden words .. they helped me tremendously through out my career …
Regards your friend, I have already said, there should be nothing stopping him from completing his degree .. everything else is manageable and it will become more manageable with time even though at the moment it may seem difficult .. all the flak that he is getting is only from people who see life from a very ordinary perspective .. for them every issue seems to be bigger then education and a dream to achieve something !
so good luck to your friend and hope inshallah he sees the end of the tunnel with success at hand ..
PS : you can call me CB for short 