Never before have expectations been so high about what people can achieve with their life. We're told that we can achieve anything. So, most people spend much time of their life working really hard to be successful.
Success is defined as the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status and is mainly characterized by external measures – how much money you make, your rank in the company, and your social status. Being successful seemingly always involves being measured against others.
However, when we talk about success vs. failure, we have to ask ourselves what characteristics they have in common: they are not everlasting, it doesn't depend one hundred percent on us, they are fortuitous, and it is statistical. They are circumstantial facts that have nothing to do with virtues.
As Alain de Botton said: The idea that we will make a society where literally everybody is graded, the good at the top, bad at the bottom, exactly done as it should be, is impossible. There are simply too many random factors: accidents, accidents of birth, accidents of things dropping on people's heads, illnesses, etc. We will never get to grade them, never get to grade people as they should.
Viktor Frankl proposed a wholly separate dimension, commonly not considered, but one that is critical for our well-being and the happiness of human beings. He called it the emptiness-fulfillment line.
There are plenty of people who are incredibly successful yet remain unhappy, despairing, or empty. It’s like they don’t know how to feel fulfilled at all. But life doesn’t have to stay that way. We choose fulfillment or emptiness. We can choose success, but success does not depend on us.
Where would you like your son or your daughter to be? Would you want him/her to be good or for him/her to be a rich wretch?
It is in the fulfillment line where ethics and integrity lie. To create virtues, we have to judge the consequences of our decisions. If we choose fulfillment, we choose virtue.
Where do you want to be in your life: success or fulfillment?
True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods.
— Aristotle