Success and failure can be a bit deceiving when viewed on the surface. To take the illustration of the iceberg, which you see only a small portion above water.

A man appears to be successful. Lots of money, nice cars, a beautiful woman at his side, influence and power at his place of employment.

Then you look beneath the surface and you see jealousy, discontent, always looking over his shoulder at work for fear someone will stab in the back and take his place.

And the beautiful woman is his mistress.

Not exactly the picture of success when you see the whole picture.

Now take a man who's not wealthy, but has enough to provide for his family and pay the bills. A bit of debt he's paying off because of some sort of toy he unwisely bought on impulse, but everything is paid on time. He works a job he doesn't necessarily love, but he's content with it, and no one is gunning for it behind his back. Each night he lays down and sleeps a good 7-8 hours, and wakes up feeling fresh and eager to get back at it.

Of course, success and failure are highly subjective. Everyone has their own definition of it. My point is that Exhibit B, although he won't be featured on the cover of Success Magazine anytime soon, is a success in his own right. Why? Because he's content with what he has.

Exhibit A could very well be next in line to be on the cover of that magazine, with his $200 haircut, killer smile, and gorgeous wife at his side (sorry mistress, you missed the cut for this one.)

But is he really successful?

Kind of a Prince and Pauper situation there, isn't it.

Now let's talk about Exhibit C. This man has legitimately failed in a significant way. He had a business, and due to poor management, negligent hiring practices, a lack of interest in finances, the business couldn't make it.

This person can do one of two things: He can look at what he did wrong, make necessary adjustments, then get back up and do it again. Or he can say, "Oh well, looks like I'm destined to work for the man. I'm just not cut out for this entrepreneurship thing."

Or worse, he goes into a depression and just quits caring about everything. He can't even hold down a "real job", he alienates everyone close to him, he squanders everything he has left prior to the business failure.

If he does the former, he isn't a failure. He definitely experienced real failure, and it no doubt hurt. But he's not a failure as a person.

The second... Well, he has a poor outlook on his abilities and his future. But if he can hold down that "real job" I say he's not a failure.

The third scenario is the real failure. This person has allowed his environment to define who he is as a person. It's one thing to fail at something, it's quite another to consider your entire existence on this planet a failure because of it.

I recently unearthed an old book called Success and Failure that talks about this very thing. It was just sitting there in the public domain, collecting dust, and when I read it I knew it deserved a second hearing in the 21st Century. The language is a bit archaic, and, well, British, but the ideas and principles contained in it are timeless.

It's available on the Committed Media mobile app, both in print and audio format, and if you want access to it, just fill out the short form on the right side of this screen and I'll hook you up. It's about an hour read/listen.

Enjoy it!