Stewardship

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SUCCESS FORSALE

The greatest threat to success in this life is ignorance. Whiles success thrives on knowledge and pursuance of purpose, failure also abounds in the darkness of ignorance. Success in life for many is fundamentally about how much financial resources they can amass and command. No wonder many toil all their lives running after money with the false illusion that money can buy all the happiness and success associated with life. But, unfortunately they amass all the wealth they possibly could but yet still feel a deep sense of void in their hearts.
Unfortunately, society has fashioned millions into measuring success by the standard of dollars and cents. For the purpose of this argument, I grant that success is measured in terms of dollars and cents, but do you mean to tell me that D. L. Moody, Martin Luther King Jr & Snr were not successful simply because they never became millionaires or billionaires; that Charles H. Spurgeon’s life was a failure because he died a poor man? Or perhaps Christ’s sojourn on earth was not successful because he didn’t leave mansions on earth after his ascension? God help us all to get rid of such standard. Success can never be measured in terms of dollars and cents; it can only be measured in terms of fulfilling our God given assignment on earth.
In this book, I challenge society’s erroneous concept of success, which holds on to the theory that personal success can only be measured in terms of dollars and by contrast to the performance of others.
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“The very fact that Bill Gates is the wealthiest person on earth today does not mean he is a success in life.”
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The same could also be said of President Obama. The very fact that he is the commander in chief of the wealthiest country on earth today doesn’t make Obama a success in life. In other words, success could only be measured in terms of progress made towards accomplishing one’s purpose in life. It is always possible to be perfectly successful at the wrong assignment. In essence, if the original intent of God for Bill Gates and Obama consists of what they are doing today, then by all means it could be argued that they are doing very well and have achieved a level of success in their lives.
Success in life is rooted in the question of purpose. Without purpose, success has no meaning. The reason and intent for writing this article is necessary to determine whether I can describe this article as a success or not. To put it simply, the only person who has the legal authority and can confidently conclude on the matter of success of this article is the author and non else. This is a carbon copy of how the author of life also considers the subject matter of success. We were all designed to fulfill the assignment given to us by the author of life and that is why before we make plans for our lives, we must consider God’s outlook and purpose for our lives.
The exponential increase in crime, wars, corruption and all manner of social vices in the last century is only an indication of our misunderstanding about our purpose on earth and also what success in life entails. Unfortunately, society has effectively deluded millions into believing that success in this life is only attained to the detriment of another being or entity. Slavery, colonization, neo-colonization, racism, apartheid, xenophobia are all borne out of the fact that people are misled into believing that the only way to stay on top in this life is by the exploitation of another human being or simply put, by keeping others down. They fail to realize that in order to keep someone down; you must necessarily stay down with him. Today, we have governments, political parties, business organisations around the world that are prepared to engage in all manner of despicable activities against their fellow human being simply to remain on top and assume an illusionary success in this life.
Regrettably, these groups of people hold the view that success in life is dependent on outwitting and suppressing their fellow man and any other form of competition they might consider as a threat. It is imperative for me to state emphatically that healthy competition by any standard is good for society. The outcome of any form of competition is only evidence that someone emerged tops in a specific field of endeavor and must in no way be misconstrued to be the benchmark for measuring success in life. The only competition that has a vital role to play in our success on earth has absolutely nothing to do with pitching one human being against the other.
The most important competition we shall all engage in, during our stay on earth does not take place on the floor of Wall Street or in Olympic stadia across the world. As a matter of fact, you are in a race to fulfilling your designed purpose in this life and the only relevant competition is that which is against yourself to successfully fulfill your destiny in life. It doesn’t matter how big an apple seed grows, if that seed never makes it to the fruit bearing stage, that seed has not been successful. The success of this apple tree has nothing to do with its surrounding trees. The same could be said of human beings. It doesn’t matter the number of times you outrun everybody on this globe or the number of plaques you have on the wall, if you do not fulfill the original purpose set by the author of life for your existence, you shall be deemed as a “successful failure.”
Identifying your purpose for existence is key to pursuing a life worthy of living and also escaping the frustrating life of excelling at the wrong assignment. The same way the apple tree depends on a number of principles such as good climatic condition, the nature of soil component etc to bear fruit, so does the man who has identified his mission in life needs certain key principles to enable him run his race successfully.
Building Success in this life is not a one minute wonder neither is it a one day spectacle. It is not a wise decision to bet your luck on stumbling upon success as it happens to the lucky few. There is a far greater chance you shall never stumble upon success in life. Success takes a similar approach as building a house. It requires a good plan, quality building materials as well as a competent building contractor. Read more about this in my book Building Success. Get a copy on Amazon.

Written by
G. K. Sarpong
www.amazon.com/author/gksarpong

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