SUCESSO - SUCCESS - ERFOLG

Those who have followed me for sometime have noticed that my journey through this year has been very busy. Because I had the opportunity to get in touch with some many different people in so many different settings and situations I wanted to talk about success. This is a word which I have misinterpreted for many years, meaning that I had a complete distorted notion of what success really means. By being in touch with many different people, from many different nationalities and backgrounds, what came to my mind is that success is actually a very broad concept. It depends on how you were raised, among what kind of people and what you have been told to fight for. I think it is interesting to start dividing the world in two, so ocidental and oriental. The symbol of success in the ocident are the rich countries. So success is deeply linked to economic power and wealth abundance. 

Interestingly, I had the opportunity in a very short period to be in touch with two of the most famous "physical" representations of that: famous cities located in the richest country on the planet, USA. I was recently for the first time since more than 20 years in the heart of this kind of mindset: New York City and Las Vegas. To be honest, I was very impressed at first. Huge buildings, lights and big screens everywhere and an infinite range of choices of things to do, from places to eat to places to party. Honestly, I tried it out. It was fun, but after I was finished, the impression was that something in the people there was missing. Their brains where so busy in trying to find something "cool" to do that paradoxically, in my opinion, they were just complete lost where to go. Should I buy? Should I eat? Should I gamble? Should I party? Should I get drunk, smoke and forget about my regular life? That was the impression I had while I was talking randomly to people around those places. And the more I saw people coming back and forth through the streets, casinos, clubs or whatever place created to make you feel satisfied, the more I could see that our society is nowadays a never-ending  representation of the non-stop to be happy culture. 

I realized after coming back that my brain was so accelerated that it took me a week or so to get back to my normal speed of thought. The link I want to make with success is this: in this kind of environment, the more you have/do/experience in your outer life, the greater level of success you have in life. I felt sad to see that I somehow was always trapped in such kind of thinking. This is the success type that in my view most of the people are driven to.  Money earning success is what most of us are going through right now. Unfortunately I did not have any experience on the oriental world. But the far east we go, the more it seems that this mindset goes towards a decreased speed of thought and a greater self awareness realization of life with less need of outer achievements. I had also the opportunity to be at London and Monaco this year. Two of the most expensive cities in the world, and very well known by their high standards of living. To be honest, I felt much more linked to these places, even though the money issue was also very evident. However, in those two places there was a kind of slower speed. The food was not served in a hurry, in huge amounts of everything in the portions. Even the McDonalds were slower, more peaceful somehow (I could not afford to eat high class everyday!). The point is, even though the amount of financial success was as high as in America, the people seem to care more about their own self awareness. By standing in front of the Monaco's casino or at Piccadilly square in London, I could feel a bit of less stress about doing everything that exists to be fullfilled and happy. 

The speed of thought was significantly slower than in America, and even though those people were also very wealthy, they were having a good time in a more intimate and personal level. I could feel through the places a sort of "happy feeling" that was more calm and focused into the moment, with no need for hurry.  So, in those places, even though the success was also money-linked, people  managed to be able to slow down their minds and enjoy life from a different perspective. The most east I went was Poland. The polish are very easy-going people. I made good connections by talking to random people on the streets. They are not considered  a rich country in Europe. However, perhaps because of that, their focus was more towards small things. They were not contaminated by the excess of options you have in a rich culture. But, it was clear to me that they were very happy having cheap vodka and walking through historical medieval streets in the cities I visited, Torun and Gdansk. I might be a bit contradictory with this essay, because as a brazilian I was very influenced by the "american dream", and this actually made me choose to live there as a teenager in 1994/95. But now, 20 years later, and after this experience there, I can say that success does not relate at any level with the amount of things you have or do. It has to do with how you can learn to live without having to do it and still be happy and fulfilled. I am convinced that this kind of mindset will have to change. The capitalism structure make people act like zumbis, and their freewill ends up biased by the system, which  makes them a sort of slaves. Slaves of the system itself. Of course the world leaders know that very well, and manipulate our expectations to hypnotize our minds towards a behaviour that reinforces the survival of this cycle. I am also a victim of this, and I do not think I will be ever free of this system, where success is linked to financial achievement and things you can pay with physical money. I do wish that our new generations will be able to form a society that will bring new horizons to this anomaly that our people live today. Again, this is a personal opinion and I am not trying to sell that we are wrong in doing what we do. I am just suggesting that our way of living can be a bit different and the priorities towards the success may be perhaps in small and simple circumstances. I would like to have comments on this, and generate discussion. If you have something to add/criticize/comment, please do so. I think that is through the sharing of our ideas and beliefs that we will be able to build a better place to live, where success may be redefined and where we will be able to have it through different ways in our lives.