On Success and the Blueprint.

I watched a movie tonight which caused me – not for the first time – to question the definition of success. It’s a surprisingly complex subject, but let me start at the first thought that occurred to me.

I wondered how many times I’ve heard or read the statement: You can be whatever you want to be. Sorry, but I find this nothing more than the sort of nonsense dreamed up by writer’s of self-help books, professional motivational speakers, and amateur gurus. I have no time for any of them, so let’s move on.

It seems to me that each of us is born with a genetic blueprint settled firmly in every cell in our bodies, and we have no choice but to work within that blueprint. If you’re tone deaf you’ll never make a concert pianist. If your hands tend to shake under pressure you’ll never be a brain surgeon. If you can’t control a round piece of leather with your foot you’ll never be a top footballer. And so on. That much is self-evident. The blueprint is a restraining factor, but there’s plenty of room for manoeuvre within it in order to achieve what matters to the individual.

For that, or so it seems to me, is what success is all about. Success is a personal concept, not something to be dictated by teachers or bosses or parents or politicians or the culture in general.

So then I looked back over my life and considered the question of whether I have been successful. It occurred to me that if my genetic blueprint had given me the quality to be a leader, I would have striven to lead. But it didn’t. If I’d been born a follower, I would have followed. But I wasn’t. I was born to observe and to experience what my nature caused me to want to experience, and that’s what I’ve done. I didn’t think of it in those terms at the time; it just happened that way because I mostly stayed within the constraints of the blueprint. On the odd occasion when I strayed outside it, I failed. And that’s how it should be.

I’ve done some good things in my life and I’ve done some bad things. I’ve helped some people and I’ve hurt others. But I have to say that in nearly all cases where I hurt people, I didn’t do so for the sake of hurting them because it isn’t in my nature to want to hurt. They were victims of me following my blueprint and I suffered plenty of guilt in the process. I don’t mean to excuse my bad deeds by saying this, but here’s the irony: It was only through hurting people by following my natural inclinations that I learned the error of my ways and grew as a result. I didn’t stop at observing others, you see; I also observed myself and the consequences of my actions. And so I have learned, and I have grown, and I’m much better at helping people and not hurting them than I was when I was younger.

So does that represent a level of success every bit the equal of being a concert pianist, a brain surgeon or a Premiership footballer? I think so, but you decide. And could it be that success, when defined that way, is what life is really all about? Some would say it is, but I don’t know. You can decide that, too.