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The delusion of success based on hard work alone

I think often times, I have fallen into the trap of reassuring that as long as I put in the hours of grinding sweat and tears, success will come as a consequence. But that hypothesis doesn't hold all to often if you were think of how many people work in plantations but their lives seemed to be getting worse in relative terms to the work of society. 

It was quite clear that the hypothesis is either flawed or incomplete. I would like to think that success in not only a measure of how much work you put in but more so on WHAT you're working towards. Taking the example of the typical rice field worker in some village in Taiwan, if the primary thing is to work hard such that you can put food on the table for your family, then perhaps that's not good enough. But if the money, which buys the food for family is to bring about change in your life or in the life of your kids, then education or extramural skills will be the topic of discussion around the dinner table.

Then of all the sudden, success is not measured by how much your hard work has reflected in the acquisition of materialistic things, but rather the richness of the conversations that has allowed yourself, your family and friends to transcend the current reality and project into a future beyond the tangible. You purpose in life is no longer a series of short-lived pleasures but and continuous fuel to response to humanity's call in your best self. You have now arrived in a frame of mind, where self-centered is no longer an option but rather a distraction irrespective of your social, economic or political environment.

I know this argument is philosophical in nature, but I truly believe society's warped perception of success is very reason why there's such imbalance and injustice which threaten the very work of humanity

--

Paulin Kantue

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