“What’s success? Why succeed? What is so important to achieve? And why achieve it in the first place? Aren’t we going away anyways? Who cares then, why not live it day by day, and enjoy the surprises and all the package that comes with Chaos”. Those words kept on looping in my head after we wrapped up all the stuff and what was left from that fire camp, on a calm and moony Saturday night. I went on a walk on the beach, those words kept on going in my head, I tried to read between the lines in what he said, and go into why he said so? Is it really his opinion, or that was a result of a bad experience or possibly a recent failure of his.
Along the day, with all the routine, and the structured daytime jobs, people tend not to think long term, they tend not to even pause and ask themselves such questions, being busy in the daily transactions they are doing, or the lists of tasks on their “to do” lists, not to forget the urgent tasks that pop up always, with all the struggle to finish as much tasks as possible during the day, people tend to miss that critical question.
The critical question on their own existence, what they want to accomplish, what they want to have while living, where they want to reach at each stage, and what legacy they want to leave while leaving this short life.
This young boy had all the reasons to think the absolute opposite of what he said, he was a fresh graduate with a decent job in one of the major banks, he played guitar in a very good way, as he demonstrated that night, and he had all the package of happiness, I guessed.
Ironically, Success is controversial! One can barely find a mutual understanding of personal success between two or more persons discussing it.
During my journey, I meet a lot of what I “personally” consider to be successful people, either being wealthy, or being charismatic, either by being inspiring leaders or by simply being loved by everyone around them. Success was defined by many writers, philosophers, thinkers and public figures as being able to create a life balance; I steadily studied their successes and tried to formulate it, tried to analyze what made them different, and how they perceive it, and came with the following findings:
1. Passion:
The one mutual thing every successful person had is PASSION, they loved what they do, many whom we consider to be successful didn’t have a balanced life, on the contrary in some of the cases, they became successful after a miserable situation, or life.
They are what they are today because they dreamed of changing their situation, they strived to reach their goals, they believed in what they had and believed they could do the difference.
In order to be successful about something, you must have a passion about it, and not any passion, one that will drive you to take risks, to go to the higher stakes, one that will keep you moving along all the barriers that would possibly face you.
What makes Nemr Abou Nassar that hilarious in every stand-up comedy gig, what makes him such a success, isn’t about just standing there telling jokes, it isn’t there because he one day decided to go on stage and perform, it’s a deep passion to a showbiz that didn’t even exist before him, a craze that started only after he had so much passion about stand-up comedy, the belief he had in it, working in Lebanon, which I am sure not everyone around him agreed on, especially that in this part of the world, Stand-up comedy is all about politicians and the political dilemma, and of course half naked women to get the audience.
Rafik Ali Ahmad was designated as “one of the hundred characters that affect Lebanon”. This was not by him just being another comedian, actor or someone who is parrot speaking one of those sleazy Lebanese series scenarios; In “Ayyam el Khiyam”, Rafik proved to the whole world that resistance is not only by holding a gun, but also by belief, faith and passion in whatever we do, and by going the extra mile of putting own talent at stake.
This is passion, this is loving what we do and this is definitely the winning edge.
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