What Do I Think Of Success?

Success man. Sometimes you can succeed, unequivocally, and it still isn't treated like success. You can see that mess with the heads of people who have a history of success and being praised. Like when the public has previously set a standard that a star has accepted, and then the star does something that could/should be viewed as successful, but is a little different from what s/he previously did, and is painted as something more akin to failure by the media (Kanye?). It seems to mess with them. They have to defend themselves: "I thought it was a great film; you guys didn't catch the undertones of mockery of socialism that we did in a cheeky way" or "The album may not have done 2 mil but I had unique live instrumentation and I sang for the first time; and it still did 600,000 which is pretty damn good by any measure." 

I feel that Jay-Z has been going through this for a while, and it's actually defining this stage of his career. On "Success" from "American Gangster," he lays it all out for you:

"I use to give a fuck, now I give a fuck less
What do I think of success? It sucks
Too much stress, I guess I blew up quick
'Cause friends I grew up with
See me as a premie, but I'm not and my nuts big..."

His friends don't see him as he sees himself. To them, he's still a premature kid, instead of a full grown man with a set of full grown man nuts.

"I don't know what the fuss is, my career is illustrious
My rep is impeccable, I'm not to be fucked with..."

He doesn't understand why they even doubt him. Look what he's done. It's obvious that he's a force. Isn't it?

"I'm way to important to be talking about extorting

Asking me for a portion is like asking for a coffin
Broad daylight I'll off your on switch
You're not to bright, goodnight, long kiss
"Bye bye" my reply, blah, blah

Blast burner then pass burner to Tye-Tye
Finish my breakfast, why?
I got an appetite for destruction and you're a small fry
Now where was I?

Well, it case it isn't, he reminds you why it should be. You shouldn't need reminding. And maybe he shouldn't care. But he does. He cares about how you perceive his success.




I've been there. I've found myself on some "Ok, well I didn't become a lawyer or an engineer or all those things they thought might happen when I was in gifted programs and all that as a youth. I did, however, get 2 college degrees, a very competitive fellowship, train teachers in prestigious programs, and move overseas, perform and distribute my own music and become pretty knowledgeable about many aspects of health and change my body inside and out, all at pretty young age. Who wouldn't take that?" It was my way of trying to convince the world to recognize that I'm still successful by most standards, just in a different way. It really just showed my insecurity and inability to define my own success.

You wanna know how success works sometimes?

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade had an amazing season last season. 21/5/5, well over 52% shooting, 2 steals in 34 minutes wasn't the first option on offense. Go ahead and look, not many players have put together that season. Most would kill for it. But now, it's pretty much consensus that Harden is superior. And he's over 30 so he's over the hill. And of course he's overshadowed because plays with the King. But numbers-wise and the fact that his team won a title, how many players had a comparable season? Lebron, Kobe, Durant, Harden...? His season should be marveled at, and he was injured and had bad stretches. And he still put that season together. He could go up to nearly every athlete in major professional American team sports and say "By statistical comparison and accomplishment, I was a better player than you were last season." Not more than 10-15 guys in the NBA, NFL NHL and MLB can say that he was wrong. But his story last year was "Still very good, but declining second banana whose decline may mean premature end to dynasty." Granted, those were the overdramatic stories but they were out there in great numbers.

Now, I'm not saying any of this affects Dwyane adversely. On the contrary, I believe he knows his legacy and is very comfortable with it. I'm just using his situation because it's a good example of what could make a weaker person start to crumble. He's being judged against his past and future. They say we live in a world of "What have you done for me lately?" But that's not always true. He had a terrific season and won a title. That's what he's done lately. And that's why you have to set your own standards, nice and high, and don't let the judgment of others mean a lot to you. Because it won't always be accurate. You don't want someone else telling your story incorrectly and having the world react to you in a way that lowers your opinion of yourself. Sometimes people will spotlight everything that doesn't make you great and ignore all of the measurements that show your success. So you have to always make sure to define it for yourself. On the other hand, you can't assume that your view of how people perceive you is accurate. Sometimes you are your own undoing. You can find yourself feeling like "They don't recognise how great I am" when in actuality, they do, and it's YOU who has set an impossible standard (Kobe? Who has set a very high standard that was maybe never his own, but MJ's?). I've been there as well. So let me offer this caveat: Define your own success, be flexible and recognize that the definition can change and only YOU can work to YOUR fullest potential.