The question struck me while reading yet another self-help book that casually referenced “successful people” as if we all agreed on what that meant. I found myself asking: In which state should I consider myself successful?
As someone with an analytical mindset, I naturally tried to create a measurement framework to define success. (I even have a separate blog about my life’s KPIs.) But this exploration led me down various paths without yielding any profound answers.
That’s when I borrowed Charlie Munger’s mental model of inversion. Instead of asking what success is, I asked what I would never consider success. The answers surprised me.
1. Money: The Hollow Promise
I will never consider any amount of money as proof that I’ve succeeded in life.
This realization came through lived experience as I progressed from three-figure to four-figure to five-figure to six-figure income. Don’t misunderstand—I wasn’t caught up in lifestyle inflation or material desires. I saved diligently and lived well below my means, accumulating substantial savings and investments.
Yet despite this financial progress, I discovered a fundamental truth:
“Money can solve all my money problems, but it can’t solve my all problems.”
2. Fame and Status: The Social Media Mirage
Next came the illusion of status. I had built a respectable reputation in both personal and professional circles. While I didn’t actively seek this status, it grew naturally as I progressed through life.
Then came 2020. COVID-19 and personal circumstances forced me to return to my hometown—a place I’d left at 15 to pursue higher education and career opportunities. After nearly a decade away, I was confronted with the stark difference between my curated online life and daily reality.
2020s, thanks to Covid and other personal events, it made me realize how hollow my fame/status/circle was. I stayed a my native place for long period (I left when I was 15 to pursue higher education, Job etc.) after a break of almost 10 years. The e-life I was enjoying had no real significance to the Real life I was living on day to day basis.
My symbolic understanding of social media—likes as agreement, comments as honest opinions—crumbled when I tried connecting the dots between digital interactions and real relationships. The “fame” I’d cultivated online had no bearing on the life I was actually living.
This wasn’t limited to social media. Real-world status revealed itself as equally hollow—a societal construct designed to keep us competing until death, adding no genuine meaning to our existence.
(I will keep adding more elements here …..)
This process of elimination brought me back to square one: What is success?
In my words, “Success is an illusion, It’s not an end state defined by specific attributes—it’s actually the beginning.”
Every person started from success on Day Zero, when they were the victorious sperm among millions of competitors racing toward the egg. That was our first and most fundamental victory.
Perhaps the real wisdom lies in letting life unfold naturally, without being guided by the artificial construct we call “Success.”
(Thoughts are personal but polished by GenAI companions)