“Nothing fails like success”- G. Nachman

Nachman’s statement examines the treacherous and uncertain nature of success. In this sense, failure relates to not realising one’s personal goals in spite of the effort that is made. Success can come in many forms, there is materially successful people, academic success, success in relationships and sport. The variety of success that can be realised in life indicates that although some success can be treacherous, it would be better seen as existing along a continuum of results or consequences of success. A broader perspective on this assertion is the societal angle, in which the collective success of people can be a blessing or a curse.

Material success can enable an individual to realise many of life’s dreams and ambitions. However, it would seem that material success does not automatically equate to satisfied people. Perhaps then, the steps taken and sacrifices made to realise incremental success is more likely to bring happiness in the form of a sense of achievement. On the other hand, materially successful people could well develop a variety of negative attitudes towards other and stagnate in their dreams. Moreover, material success of the pursuit of it could make people failures in their relationships, possibly neglecting spouses, friends, siblings or children to realise such goals. It is quite clear then that success or too much of it can fail an individual. Nevertheless, there are many other aspects to this concept that must be noted.

Success in life will not automatically or eventually cloud one’s judgement to the extent that other important things are neglected. What is central is the attitude we adopt to the situations or our achievement in lief. Winston Churchill once stated that “success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm…”. This seems to highlight the intertwined destiny of success, the opposite being failure. However, some forms of success such as the academic generally leads to an embellishment of the individual. One particular perspective on this is that the more one discovers or learns, the more they realise how little they know. In this regard, therefore, success in learning is more likely to dispose individuals to an even more open attitude to the world individuals to an even more open attitude to the world., which could be viewed as a realisation of the original purpose. The crucial point here is the light individuals see their achievements in. Thus, success does not necessarily equate to certain failure, but it does lead to altered perspective on a personal level. This perspective also applies to the society nad how they respond to realised goals.

There are groups in society that assert that the more successful we become, the more responsibility society has to its weaker members. There are still other groups stating that materially successful societies become increasingly self-seeking and collectively more narrow minded in their outlook. The first point would constitute failure if society ignored the disadvantaged whereas the second notion states that progressing societies already fail in an by themselves. This difference is indicative of the continuum of failure that surrounds success. That is to say, to attempt to do something is to allow failure, but to do nothing is to have already failed. Thus, societies’ obligation shed some light on the series of events that constitute failure.

It is clear that in some forms, success is treacherous and detrimental to those who do not view it as part of the growth and toil of humanity.