It's a fact of life that we must all succeed. We all feel a stringent need to fulfil ourselves as human beings and achieve happiness.
What is human success made of, though? For most people, I guess, it's, after you grow up, being able to find enough money, a companion for life, having children, having a nice house, trips overseas and the occasional party with friends, etc.
More demanding people, though, think of building financial and business empires so that they can have, not just enough, but much, much more than enough. It depends, I suppose, on how you see yourself. Some people see themselves as mythical and I imagine that as being the motivation behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
What I have been noticing for a while is that when some people go through reversals of fortune and see themselves as failures, they often suicide. The things we want in life must have a great significance for us and being denied them is something we cannot cope with.
The question I ask now is: why do we need to be successful? And why do we suffer so much when we're not?
I think that when we're born we bring with us a dream. While babies our dream is nourishment and growth as well as love. As we grow up we become progressively more independent and look for the next step of the dream that we must fulfil: finding a love partner, having children, etc. In a way, we are like flowers opening each new day: we move from goal to goal and become realised as we accomplish our dream, flourishing at each step. If we are denied this course of events, we want to die. Life, then, becomes meaningless.
So, being successful is a true need for us, human beings. I'm convinced from observation that it's the same with animals. And with this I mean that the need to be successful is basic and innate in us.
