Definition Essay On What Is Success

What is success and how do we achieve it? Webster’s dictionary says success is: “A favorable or desirable outcome.” Dictionaries are made up of words with definitions made up by the consensus of mainstream society. In this case, we learn that society is telling us that success is based solely on what is gained through an action; the outcome. If you think about it, we have been taught to think this way our whole lives. School isn’t about the learning experience, it’s about letters on a report card. In sports, the objective becomes to win at all costs, with little regard for personal growth. When we think this way, we are not motivated to succeed, but rather to not fail. We begin think of failure as purely negative; any instance of it cripples our mind from pursuing future opportunities. Six time NBA champion Michael Jordan once said “ I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” Success is not superficial or about avoiding failure; rather, success is a meaningful journey. Success is not defined by cheap victories and the fear of failure, but

However, the “millennial” generation seems to suffer from the fear of failure. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article citing that in 1989, 11 percent of startup companies were built by 20 somethings. In 2016, that number dropped to just three and a half percent. At a time when youth and enthusiasm are on their side, these millennials should be the people most eager to innovate and take risks. Instead, the group creating the most new businesses are over 50 fifty years old. We as a society have been conditioned to believe that failure is the worst possible outcome; this way of thinking it incredibly flawed, as it paralyzes us from seeking new