Criteria of Success

A friend once asked me if I think his brother who has been a primary school teacher for almost 20 years is a successful person. I said that I cannot judge him because I don't really know his brother. We cannot use success as yardsticks to measure other peoptes' success unless we really know their goals and situation, som, people may see his brother as a failure because he ,:as very little money and the most precious possessiorr has is an old bicycle to take him to school, some fr-group photographs of his former students, an_t collection of books. On the other hand, he is because many fine doctors, CEOs, teachers, profeessors, and governors still call him "Dear Teacher'. He is a successful person because his purpose in life was never to accumulate money but to develop great citizens and leaders for his nation.

Measure of Success 1. Goal
2. Time
3. Effort
4. Contribution
5. Sustainability
6. Joy

It is important that we measure our success or our failure in relation to a six goal achievement criteria, that is; 1. Goal Achievement, 2. Time, 3. Effort, 4. Contribution, 5. Sustainability and 6. Joy.

Goal Achievement

This is the simplest and most straight forward criteria of success. If two equally intelligent students want to he ntunber one in their class, the one who achieves first place is more successful than the other. Obviously, in order to know whether we are successful or not, we need to have a goal to begin with. A lazy aimless person who inherited a million dollars from his wealthy uncle that he has never met in his life is not a successful person; he is just lucky.

Time Spent to Achieve It

Samnang and Veasna were two high school friends who wanted to become doctors. When they graduated from high school they enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the same university. Samnang studied hard and successfully graduated as a medical doctor in 6 years. Veasna was more interested in playing computer games and going to wild parties than in attending lectures and reviewing his lessons, and as a result he failed several times and only just managed to graduate 3 years after Samnang. Both students achieved their goals, but clearly Samnang is more successful than Veasna.

Personal Effort Needed to Achieve It

When the circumstances are the same, we may evaluate success by the degree of our achievement or the time we take to achieve it. In real life, situations are rarely the same. Different people have different degrees of intelligence, financial resources and different social circumstances.

Samnang has a girl friend named Theary, who also dreamt of becoming a doctor, but unlike Samnang, her father is a poor farmer and her mother is very sick. When Theary graduated from high school, she had to support her family by working as a cleaner in the local hospital. Despite her hardship, Theary never give up her dream and with the money she saved she attended night classes. Finally, after twelve difficult years, she graduated as a medical doctor. Both Samnang and Theary achieved their goal, but her determination and great personal effort in overcoming her difficulty to achieve her goal make Theary more successful than Samnang.

We tend to admire people for what they have. rather than for the work and hardship they have endured to become what they are. In school, most teachers praise and reward only students who have achieved outstanding grades but they do not pay enough attention to those who have made tremendous personal effort just to maintain their lowly grades. I consider personal effort as the most important measure of success because the struggle we endure to achieve our goal molds your character and transforms us into to a stronger and wiser person.