What they never told you about success

Everyone wants to reach the top. We all want to climb to the top of our careers but only a few tell us what happens after we have gotten there.

We are urged to be great and walk in the corridors of power but no one tells us what we need to keep walking in these corridors. 

Everyone has his own picture of success grandly painted on their mind. We all want to enjoy the feeling of utopia success promises us― the luxurious vacations, the incessant praises of men, the fat bank accounts and what have you. Indeed, everyone talks about how hard they’ll need to work to be successful but almost everyone is silent on what happens after the success comes.

Success sometimes is only a myth. It’s like that pasture that looks exceptionally green from a distance only for you to get close to know that it wasn’t as luxurious as you thought. Like a mirage, you get close only to know that everything wasn’t as rosy as you had perceived. Nowhere cool!

They tell you to work so hard to be a success but no one tells you how harder you need to work even after you become a success. You assume that hard work is only for those who want to be successful only for you to reach there and get to know that “harder” work belongs to those who want to remain successful. It’s a myth to think success may make us work less.

Everyone urges you to embark on success but no one tells you that it is a never-ending journey. No one tells you that it never has a destination. Everyone tells us how to reach success but they forget to add that success today is not a guarantee for success tomorrow if we stop doing what made us successful.  They’ll never tell you success is a culture and that you need to keep the traditions that took you there!

It is human for others to urge you on to be a success but they forget to tell you that you cease to be human when you become a success. They forget to tell you that successful people can’t be broke because others have exaggerated images of their bank account. You can’t eat or buy what everyone else calls affordable lest you be tagged as stingy. Your expenses should not be cheap!

Others assume you harvest money daily from your backyard, thus, when they ask for favours should never be turned down. You should be a walking bank; always ready to give loans. No one tells you that success makes you that superhuman who should be lavishing money on others just at the mention of it. No one tells you.

When people tell you what you should do to become a success, ask them what you should do to stay a success, too. Probe what you should do after you become successful because many will hang around you just to use you as a ladder to get to where they selfishly want to be.

They will sing of your praises just to be in your good books so you can endorse them. They’ll do more for you because they think about themselves most.

You’ll barely make true friends when you reach the top. Many who will come your way are the same who would have shunned you when you were struggling to find your feet. You’ll have many fans but only a tithe of them will genuinely love you. You’re most vulnerable when you become a success but no one will tell you.

You’re most feeble when you’re at the top because in your bid to embrace everybody, you’ll have your worst enemy right beside you. In your attempt to pull others along to the top, many will be preying on your good heart to pull you to the bottom.

You’ll never be told that when successful, the majority will love you for what you have and not who you are. They will kowtow at your feet just to stand on your head to get to their destination. No one tells you that you will have the largest following at the peak of your success yet remain one of the loneliest.

People tell us to do all within our power to reach great heights but they forget to caution us that those at the top are the most exposed to backlash and condemnation. When you accept everyone, others will assume you’ve some evil intentions. When you accept only a few, you’re discriminatory and pompous. When you are overly generous, your source of wealth is questionable. When you’re overly careful about spending, you have forsaken the society that helped you to the top.

As a gentleman, when you have a handful of female friends, you’re gay. If you’ve a throng of them, you’re a Casanova. As a lady, on the other hand, if you’ve many men as friends, they get into your pants to put you where you are. If you’ve only a few, it’s because of your wild hatred for men. When others inspire us to be great, ask them what it takes to remain great!

When they tell us about their way to the top, further ask them how they kept their spot there. Ask them about how they overcame the illusion that their talent was enough until they found out that character was even more important. Let them tell you about the many myths those who are on their way to the top have about those who are already there.

Rest only comes after death, not after success. Our hearts will only be at peace after we have left this earth. As long as we are, we need to keep battling challenges of varying weights― whether we are successful or not.  

If you ever dream of being great someday, know that to be at the top, you need a great deal of sense to contain a great deal of nonsense. However, only a few will tell you.

Kobina Ansah is a Ghanaian playwright and Chief Scribe of Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com), an Accra-based writing firm. Order for copies of his animation book, Animuonyam The Bully Stopper, via 0243752793.