Desire to be successful

We all have some innate human desire to be successful or famous. But the attachments to these labels and what they mean in a social context have more to do with the desire than achieving our own personal feats.

Most people in this world want to be successful. Why? Some individuals may not be able to answer this question directly. Most people may give you an answer that is tied to their own personal goals. The actual reason why most want to be successful is because it validates them, giving them a true sense of belonging and acceptance by the masses, while guaranteeing acknowledgment. Being successful or famous will ensure (in modern society) that your name will be immortalized in history and that you cannot be replaced.

Being successful validates you because it makes you feel important. It proves to your psyche (sometimes fallaciously so) that everybody else who has attempted to achieve whatever you succeeded in has failed. This gives you a sense of value by signifying that you are unique and different from everybody else because you were successful in your respective arena. It also means that you will never be forgotten, that your name lives on. This is a very salient notion in modern society and is also crucial for psychological nurture.

Once you become successful and are in the spotlight it will allow you extend your social networks and people will receive you differently. Becoming successful may/may not make you famous but it will make you popular in the arena you succeed in. This gives you a special sense of belonging. Humans naturally gravitate towards popular individuals. Furthermore, successful people have a unique trait that the rest of the human populations desires and admires therefore the amount and duration of interactions with other people will increase dramatically; this confers a sense belonging. Since people usually want to be around successful individuals they tend to accept them; people who are successful usually have high rates of acceptance among different social groups.

Lastly most humans want to be successful in order to be acknowledged. Being successful will almost guarantee that you will be recognized. Everybody in life wants to be recognized no matter how grand or trivial the task. Being recognized will indirectly ensure belonging which are two very important requirements for psychological growth. Acknowledgment can be amplified and reach the next level which is being idolized. Being idolized means that you have almost reached a super human state (where most people regard you as Perfect, flawless, the best) which can be unhealthy. At this stage people have gone from admiring you to glorifying you.

God Bless this is Alex signing out!