Being a good person is better than being a successful person

seems successful - The picture shows that these peoples have got success only few minutes before. That is why they are celebrating. Can they guarantee that they are good individuals as well?
India
January 23, 2010 12:17pm CST
These days people are talking about being a successful. Now life is supposed to be a race, if you come second you will not be called successful in your life. The race is on for all of us. But I have a question that is if you are a successful person but not a good person, then is that successfulness really has any meaning? Well in my opinion you have to be a good person first and then go for the success. Being good means that one should be polite with others, should know his or her duties well and other things of that kind. As a whole success will be called real when you are a good individual.
24 responses
@megaplaza (1441)
• Nigeria
23 Jan 10
it depends on our individual priorities in life, mentality, philosophy and lots more. for some, it better to be a king in hell than a servant in heaven, so some prefer success by any means necessary than living a good below par
• Romania
23 Jan 10
yeah....agree with you....'some prefer to be a king in hell than a servant in heaven'
• Romania
23 Jan 10
lol
@teamrose (1492)
• United States
24 Jan 10
Being successful and being good are too totally different things. There are many many truly successful people that are one would not consider good people. In fact, most would say they are ruthless and heartless. Then there are many people one would call good people that are truly not successful. In an ideal world one would love to be good and successful, but if I had to choose, I would rather be successful than good.
@wavelander (1526)
• Portugal
24 Jan 10
Why can't i be both? You don't need to hurt others to achieve success.
@agb610 (71)
24 Jan 10
I agree with this. Yes success can make you happy for a while but being a good person is worth more than being successful.
• Qatar
24 Jan 10
of course it is a correct solution
• United States
24 Jan 10
Generally good people are defined in someway by their spiritual nature, religion, or higher power etc...in their lifestyle and choices. But this is not a requirement to be successful materially, but I don't think that makes you Bad either. Good vs Successful is one of those chicken and the egg debates, there is no right or wrong answer. One hopes people will aspire toward their better natures and be Good as a person. One also hopes that if someone has the means to be successful - that they would not squander it by not pursing their path to a better life and fortunes... All paths lead to one.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
24 Jan 10
I think that success and being a good person goes hand in hand. Realizing, of course, that success means different things to different people. I can have all the money in the world and still not feel like I have done the things I needed to. I think of success as being a whole. Money and goodness would be great but if I can just be a good person and have the funds I need to be comfortable..I would consider myself successful.
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
I think part of being success is being a good person. You can't be successful if you're not a good person
@benny128 (3615)
24 Jan 10
I personally think it all depends on your definition of successful lol, I am a single dad I am not a millionaire but earn a very nice income and am semi retired at 34 due to me mlm business that I started 10 years ago. Now to me I am successful but having my own business and being semi retired isn't success to me, my success is yet to come as my kids grow up as long as I can help my kids to become good human beings then and only then will I be successful work is work the most important is what you do for your family.
@sublime03 (2339)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
You can be both if you are intelligent enough to balance everything. Being successful does not necessarily mean that you need to be mean to get where you want to be. A person can be a good person at the same time be successful in anything they do if they know their key points on where they are good at to be success in life.
@MrKennedy (1978)
24 Jan 10
There are hardly any good people in life, as far as I'm concerned. Now, I know everybody may not agree with me here, and I may be flamed for this, but hear me out. As I've gotten older, I have realised that everybody is deep down inside out for themselves and only interested in their own agenda. Everybody always seems to have a negative opinion on anything or anybody. You could be the nicest person on earth, and many people would still have a bad opinion about that. People are ready to ditch you in a heart-beat if it was of benefit to them. Yeah, I try to be a good person, and to many people I am, yet I am still criticized of trying to be a "suck-up" or "manipulative". If I had a choice between being a good person or being a successful person, I know what I would choose
@madteaparty (2748)
• Japan
24 Jan 10
Well, being successful is something a little subjective in my opinion. You can be successful if you're happy and loved from some people's point of view, or if you get a lot of money and good business, from other people's point of view. In the first case, being a good person is mandatory to be successful. I would prefer to be successful in that way.
@vince06 (98)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
i agree with your opinion we must be a good person before we call ourself succesful, how can we call ourself a successful person if we hurt somebody in past and possible our conscience will be the one who will fight us back..so, we cant be succesful if our mind is not at peace.
• China
24 Jan 10
No, successful person sometimes means good person. I don't know how you define the successful, but how can one be successful if he lack of good/kind moral character on daily life.
• Romania
23 Jan 10
How do we defined success? To me, success means 'we have achieved our goals in life, the achievement of a desired aim'. Even if we managed to rob the bank, that might also be considered success. You can see from here that different people from different walks of life have varying opinion on how they define success in their life. How do we define a good person? To me, a good person is someone who has a wide range of view of life. Someone who understands other people's problem and feel pity for them and is striving to make themselves better. Someone who is grateful for who he is and does not judge other people nor does he judge himself. Some one who live life to the fullest, grabbing every opportunity he can and make full use of it. Someone who is able to see himself through the eyes of others. Someone who makes every effort to brighten up the day of everyone he or she comes in contact with. Someone who enjoy life in the midst of difficulties. Some people measure success with wealth. The wealthiest person is the most successful person. Others, measure with the level of education we achieved. The only thing that we can bring with us in the end (when we die) is what is in our heart. If we lived a life full of arrogance, greediness, cruelty,...These things, we shall bring with us in our heart when we die. But, if we lived life full of happiness, gratefulness to God, ....these things, we will bring with us in our soul when we die. Got what i mean? So, i think, it's better to be a good person than to be a successful person.
• India
23 Jan 10
absolutely success doesn't ensure a good character as well.neither every good person is successful but definitely its more worthy to be a good person than a successful one if it means getting success at the cost of one's convictions.
@carrine (2743)
• Philippines
23 Jan 10
its true, the two should come both! i cannot say a person as a successful if he/shes not good right? and if he/shes good no doubt he/she will be a successful one. thats for sure, and thats my view in life.
@maezee (42003)
• United States
23 Jan 10
I would have to agree with you. But I guess it depends on what your definition of "successful" is, because I'm pretty sure mine includes financial stability, happiness, contentment, a good career, AND being a "good person" by all means. Possibly these wealthy businessmen aren't actually, by our definitions "successful" because they AREN'T good people and don't do enough good things for the people & community around them.
@bird123 (10632)
• United States
23 Jan 10
Give love and kindness to everyone you meet. Help those you can and encourage those you can't. You will be a success no matter how much money you make.
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
i believe good people are better than successful ones. We are here in this world to strive and be a good person. Besides, good people are the one who becomes successful in life.