How to Measure Success Other Than Financially: How Do You Measure Success?

If success is measured only in terms of dollars and cents, then how successful can one suggest that humankind is now, or has been in the past? How successful will humankind become in the future?  

Fortunately, financial success is only one kind of success. It does not necessarily guarantee peace of mind and may not be the most rewarding kind of success.

Dictionary.com suggests that financial success is only one of several measurements for success including “the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors” and “the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like”.  Success has other connotations, for example, in terms of “performance or achievement” where it depicts a person or a thing. An obsolete meaning for the word success is that of “outcome”.  

At times, there may be too much emphasis placed on financial success. For example, there are parents who only see their child as being successful when he or she earns money. Meanwhile, another child gets excellent grades at school, and his or her parents see their child as successful, academically. The first child is obligated to leave school early in order to support his or her parents. The child with good grades stays in school and in time, becomes a doctor.        

Which one is successful? One might suggest that both are, but in different ways and in accordance with the ways their parents determine success.

Success measured in terms of cultural and value systems, can differ from one cultural and value system to another. For example, one family takes care of both sets of their parents and grandparents by sacrificing financially, in order to do so. A second family walks away from both sets of their parents and grandparents, becoming financially independent. A third family seeks financial support from both of their sets of parents and grandparents. Which is the most successful? This depends at least in part upon their cultural and value systems.        

Thus, measuring success come about in different ways. Insistence upon financial success alone may not always be the most appropriate. 

Success is determined in terms of goal orientation, as well. For example, when a goal is positive, constructive and proactive in nature, success is highly likely. There are no guarantees of success, but when something is negative, destructive and non-active or active in a negative direction, its success is unlikely. If a goal is negative, then success is the achievement of that goal, but it may be pseudo-success in terms of a larger picture.

Success regarding money belongs in the realm of finances, but since money is not everything or the focus of everything, other ways of measuring success are often more appropriate.