I've recently been asked to expand on what my search for success is, and found it surprisingly difficult to do! So, being a lover of the great multi-media encyclopedia that is the internet, and of not re-inventing the wheel, I set forth from Google in search of a definition for the success that I'm searching for. I immediately found several references to a poem called, appropriately and rather succinctly, "Success". It seems that there has been some debate about the true author of the poem or its many variations, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, but on reading further it is attributed to Bessie A. Stanley in 1905. It sums things up rather nicely for me:
He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
Certainly something to aspire to, methinks.
