Do You Want to Be a Success?

January 5th, 2007 | blogging, poetry, publishing, responses, writing

We talked on the telephone about why he wrote it.

That’s a line from a post Liz Strauss offered a few weeks ago. Liz, you continue to amaze me. Thanks for posting that essay and thanks for your intro. I’m a little slow in responding, but I didn’t want to let this slip by.

Jesse’s essay reminds me of how success is so easy to assign to the past. I can read my favorite writers and think–”Wow, those guys were successful.” But few of them ever realized it.

For example, according to legend Walt Whitman had to give away copies of the first edition of Leaves of Grass–which eventually changed how people write poetry in the English language.

Emily Dickinson just stopped submitting her poems. Thankfully, they were found in a trunk after her death.

Hemingway, man, I love Hemingway. He shot himself in the face with a shotgun. The man I think of as having mastered English prose didn’t think he was a success at the end of his life.

Movies are the same way. Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life barely broke even when it was released. Then it sat unwatched for thirty years until people started playing it for free on TV. Now it is described as the American Dickens.

Here’s what I think success looks like–when a blogger calls up another writer and treats him like an equal. When we all trust each other enough to be honest and open and vulnerable.

And when the concept for an essay touches me enough that I remember it weeks later and can’t let it go.

That essay may not win any awards. But it is a success.

Viewing 5 Comments

Charity Singleton 1 year ago 1 point
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I've often wrestled with the definitions of "success" and "failure" in light of God's will. Apart from sinful behavior, which I suppose could easily be classified "sin," did I "fail" if I tried something risky and it didn't work out as I planned? Did it work out as God planned? If I failed, did God?

Don't want to go too far with the confusion. These ideas have been plaguing me for years -- probably in light of some "failures" on my part.

Thanks for this thoughtful post.

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Marcus 1 year ago 1 point
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Charity, thank you for the thoughtful comment.

Logically, I tell myself that success is simply Christlikeness. The more I am like Christ, the more I am successful.

The trick is knowing what that means. And that is why Paul tells us to pray without ceasing.

I wish that I would.

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Liz Strauss 1 year ago 1 point
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I had to come over to say thank you for noticing. Changing the world happens one person one small act at a time. :)

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Marcus 1 year ago 1 point
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Thanks, Liz. I try to remember that as I work. It is easy to get caught up in grandiose ambitions. Imagine how great the world would be if everyone helped and loved the people around they encountered daily.

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andre 1 year ago 1 point
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Marcus

Thanks for the post - success, failure and significance. There's so much more that can be said about the topic.

We want to do great things for God...some years ago, in the midst of dreaming of doing great things I sensed what I believe to be a "still small voice" of God asking - "what if I want you to so something small...are you still willing to do that and trust me to do with that what I will?"

Good post, my friend.

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