Success and Freedom

Success: A Challenge

By Eugene C. Onyibo 

It is a pity that many people are yet to come to terms with the fact that success is a challenge. This is why many people are unable to manage their success. Success is a challenge because it is tough and difficult. It also constitutes a challenge because it is demanding, taxing and testing. It is worthy of note that 'challenge' is not the same as 'problem'. The difference between 'challenge' and 'problem' is attitude. While optimists use 'challenge' to describe difficult situations, pessimists use 'problem' to describe the same circumstances.

Success constitutes a challenge in two ways: becoming a success and remaining a success. Every individual is confronted by either of these challenges at every point in time. At every point in time, everyone is either striving to become a success or striving to sustains a success and remain a success. While successful people combat the challenge of sustaining and retaining their successes, failures and average people confront the challenge of achieving success. One of the reasons people who excel in life are celebrated is because neither of these challenges is easy.

According to the late reggae legend, Bob Marley, "Everyman thinks his burden is the heaviest". This is why people who are still struggling to succeed in life believe that the challenge of becoming a success is more difficult than whatever challenge people who have succeeded are undergoing. But on the other hand, successful people are unhappy that most unsuccessful people do not realise that there are challenges in their world. They are unhappy that others have no sympathy for the burden of challenges their achievements place on their lives.

Indeed, achieving success is an uphill task. Channeling one's effort into to the pursuit of success without accomplishing the set goal is unarguably very frustrating. Many people who are still struggling to achieve a meaningful life are convinced that achieving such goal is an uneasy task. Some of them believe that succeeding in life is the most difficult goal to accomplish. For some of them, after their consecutive efforts at achieving success continuously fail, they believe that they require the knowledge of some mysteries, not secrets, to accomplish success.

However, people who are successful consider their burden of challenge to be proportional to the heights they attain. Though becoming a success and remaining a success are challenges, the latter challenge is heavier than the former. If you watch the lives of wealthy people closely, for instance, you will observe that it is more difficult to maintain being rich than to become rich. This is also applicable to the lives of celebrities. This is why there are numerous people across the globe who failed after attaining very reputable positions in (different aspects) life.

Some people believe that they can remain at the top if anyone can assist them get there. This is very incorrect because it is more difficult to remain at the top than to get to the top. The implication of this is that if you can remain at the top if you were there, then you can get to the top. In other words, if you can remain being a success (if you were a success), then you can become a success. If it is more difficult to remain successful than to become successful, then whoever can maintain being a success can also become a success.

There are many people who tasted success but are numbered among failures today. There are many people who were once rich but very poor today. There are also many people who were the bests in their fields at a time, but have been displaced and rendered irrelevant. The realisation of this truth speaks very eloquently on the fact that everyone who achieves success may not be able to remain a success. The implication of this is that the failure of some successful people is only a matter of time. Some successful people are ignorant of this truth.

Success, like power, could be transient. Like a liquid, success could evaporate with time. This is why there are many people who are celebrated today but who will not be celebrated in the future. Not everyone who achieves success will die a success. By the very nature of some success, they are transient. For instance, being the best athlete of the year is a success that lasts for a year, except it is renewed. However, there are some successes that can be sustained for the rest of one's life, if it is properly managed. An example of such is marital success.

The road to success is filled with the thorns of failures, mistakes, disappointments and setbacks, though they are usually very helpful to people in acquiring the expertise for managing success later. You will easily admit the truth in this claim if you observe the histories of most people who became rich suddenly (e.g. through lottery, inheritance, etc.). They usually go back to where they started after a while because they are unable to manage their fortunes. They cannot sustain their success because it has a very weak foundation.

Success is a challenge. It could be the beginning of failure, if it is not properly managed. Experience lends credence to the fact that it is much easier to become a success than to manage success. This is why many people are usually unable to sustain their success. The beginning of the failure of many successful people is often the conviction that it could not have been, and cannot be, otherwise. Many people forget that success is a challenge. This is why they are easily carried away by their accomplishments during their days of glory.

Success has a power of its own, a power that affects the victim's sense of reasoning, most times, in very negative ways. Many people cannot sustain their success because they cannot manage it. They allow their achievements to control them rather than controlling their achievements. Most people do not remain the same after becoming successful, and the change is usually not for the better. This is a challenge of success. Many people easily acquire failure catalysts (arrogance, extravagance, rudeness, etc) after becoming successful.

One success can be the foundation of another success, as success begets success. But this is possible only if the successful person is able to manage his success. There are also people, though a few, who remain successful after getting to the top. Such people keep getting better and more successful as days grow older. Anyone who has once tasted failure will never love to be identified with it again if he ever becomes a success. In a similar vein, anyone who has once tasted hardship will never want to be identified with poverty, if he ever becomes rich.

But this is a condition that can be sustained only if the success is able to resist the negative effects of the pride of success. Most unfortunately, most successful people are usually unable to achieve this. This is also why their success stories usually end as once upon a time. Success is a challenge. It is up to you to determine whether you will achieve it. Even when it becomes a reality in your life, it is also up to you to determine you will sustain or lose it. These will be determined by your attitudes to life.

Eugene C. Onyibo is a motivational speaker, trainer, business coach, personal financial management expert, entrepreneur, philosopher and prolific writer. He is the publisher of Inspiration Express, an online inspirational magazine. You can click this link http://inspirationexpress.com.ng to see the magazine. He is also the author of Pathway to Success: Roadmap to Unlimited Sustainable Success, a best-selling inspirational book (on personal development) that has helped numerous people across the globe to optimise their potentials and achieve happy, successful, blissful, productive and fruitful lives. The book is available online at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JDAJRTW#navbar. Eugene C. Onyibo (a wildly traveled, and also a much sought after, speaker at seminars, workshops, conferences, etc) is also a consultant of private and public organisations.

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