What’s wrong in “Becoming successful”?

Thanks to Ramprasad for raising such a fundamental question to an earlier post on “Success vs. flowering”. He has given a very apt example, that of Rahul Dravid, in bringing out the point that “becoming” and “being” are not mutually exclusive as the post suggests. Ramprasad feels that it doesn’t matter as long as you are enjoying. And I agree with him.

Many times we get so busy with “becoming” that “joy” part is forgotten. Or at least put on hold for the time being. The reasoning is “Let me get to this point, and then I will really do what I love doing”. “This point” sometimes is about reaching a position like vice president or CEO, sometimes is about accumulating sufficient net worth to be able to continue current standard of living for the rest of the life, at other times it will be linked to being debt free or kids getting married etc. All these are practical considerations and have their own merit. In short, there is nothing wrong with these approaches. But the unfortunate part is, many times “This point” never comes. Or when it comes, either there is no energy left “to enjoy” or “how to enjoy” is completely forgotten.

Ramprasad has summarized some of the sentences from Geet Sethi’s “Success vs Joy” in his blog. To pick one I liked: I have learnt that when I wanted success and was willing to sacrifice joy for it, eventually got neither.