Success

Success is not something you only achieve once, by beating someone in some sort of race. Success is an ongoing process. It happens every single day, and if you don’t work for it, you fail at it.

Most of all, despite what some people say, success is not the key to happiness. Rather, happiness is the key to success.

To be successful, trust yourself. Ignore the haters. Don’t be afraid to fail, because I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – failure is the foundation of learning. Work for what you want, and give things back to people, because while giving isn’t so great all the time; taking doesn’t get you muchwhere either.

I don’t know. I can’t tell you what to do to be successful. See, our definitions of success vary so much.

Some of us in this room right now want to be elected as president, or become famous singers and actors like Taylor Swift and Christina Perri, Jennifer Lawrence and Angelina Jolie, or be doctors and lawyers and everything in between. Others want to make big money and hold that position through life. Some of us just want to get straight A’s, even B’s, and graduate!

And maybe there are people here who’s idea of success has been laid out for them already by their parents. But the thing is, success is yours, and unfortunately, that’s why I can’t tell you so much on how to achieve it. Not your mother’s, or father’s, or sister’s, or brother’s, or teacher’s, or friend’s, or dog’s, no, your success is yours. Make it your own. That’s the one thing I can tell you, even if there’s not much else I have to say… you know why?

Too many people have too specific definitions of success. But success isn’t measured by how many trophies you have. You don’t measure how much you’ve grown since a certain point in time by inches, or how much you weigh, or even results on a test.

Because at the end of the day, success isn’t about winning. It’s about making mistakes, but recovering from them – it’s about learning from your bad experiences and doing better.

Success is not about accumulating enough money to buy anything to want for the rest of your life. Success is the point where you’re content in life – with what you have, because you have worked for it. And you continue to work for that content feeling, because honestly, isn’t that what success is? The point where you’re content in life. Nothing more, nothing less. How wonderful.