I have been thinking about success and happiness .The Oxford dictionary defines Success as accomplishment of aim ,attainment of wealth ,fame etc."Happiness does not figure in this definition .So to define a person as successful can mean anything .He can be a successful physician ,an enterpreneur ,a lawyer ,a technician or a cheat ,a swindler ,a murderer .As long as all the three criteria are fulfilled all of the above are successful .
Happiness is defined as pleasure and contentment .So what is the relationship between the two ?
Success is related to any thing you have to work for while happiness is a state of mind.So if one works for and fulfils one's aim one is successful and if this fulfilment of aim gives him contentment he is happy also.Thus a murderer can be as happy as say a Doctor as long as he is content with what ever he is doing .By default both can be equally devoid of happiness if they are not content even though they may be successful in fulfiling their aims .Therefore success and happiness are totally unrelated .A successful person can be unhappy and a loser may be a happy person .I am talking about success from individual's perspective. Obviously from the point of view of the society a swindler can not be compared with an engineer even though both consider themselves successful .So what is the best situation to be ?Naturally the best would be to be both successful and happy but given the option of choosing one I would certainly like to be happy .