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Is Happiness Synonymous with Success?
Over the course of this semester in this class, the answer to this question has become very
evident to me. Happiness is synonymous with success but success isn’t always synonymous with
happiness. Happiness is a state of well-being that includes emotions that range from contentment
to ecstasy. Success is when the goal’s set out by one’s society have been accomplished (Flynn).
This answer was made apparent due to the novel, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse and the movies,
Into The Wild and The Pursuit of Happyness which were assigned and presented to the class
during the semester. Along with these, outside research was conducted in order to further display
knowledge on the subject and to provide additional evidence.
In the book, Siddhartha, we were able to see how success doesn’t necessarily lead to
happiness. The main character, Siddhartha, wished to obtain enlightenment and he went on many
journeys, listened to different teachings and tried many different lifestyles in order to try and
answer his questions on the nature of his existence. He learned from the Samanas how to free
himself of the traditional trappings of life, how to lose the desire for all material items, sexuality
and all non-required sustenance and having attempted to find enlightenment through the loss of
self. Siddhartha found however that this path of self-denial was no permanent solution for him.
Soon after leaving the Samanas he decided to steer his life in a completely different direction,
one that rather would have him learn from pleasures of the body and the material world. He
became very wealthy, enjoying all the benefits of his abundant life, able to obtain anything
money had to buy. In the material world he then belonged to he would have been referred to as
successful. However, the more Siddhartha obtained, the less it satisfied him. One night he had a
dream about his lover’s bird lying dead in his cage, giving him the clear message that the
material world was slowly kill him and that he wasn’t going to find enlightenment there (Hesse
45). He leaves to stay with a ferryman who he had met years earlier. This man radiated an inner
peace that Siddhartha wish to achieve. He stays with this man for many years, studying the river
in order to find a spiritual enlightenment. After many years he finally has a revelation about how
all life is interconnected in one big cycle with no beginning or end because birth and death are
just parts of a timeless unity. With this revelation he realizes that enlightenment cannot be taught
but must be found from within (Hesse 73). All of the influence of organized religion failed to
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help him and at the end of the story the only one who could allow this enlightenment was
himself.
The success you have is based on the values of the society you are surrounded by and just
because you find yourself flourishing in a society doesn’t necessarily mean you will be happy.
The story of Siddhartha shows how he was able to be successful in the society he put himself in,
but despite being successful he was unhappy and felt himself dying because of the material
world he had surrounded himself in. A recent study showed how most societies have been found
to value intelligence, academic success and financial security. This study has also explored the
relationship between happiness and other life domains and results have shown that those that
hold the greatest influence on an individual’s happiness are self-esteem, academic success and
financial security. However, more people were found to graduate who had a higher state of well-
being than those who had a lower state of well-being and it also showed to have a very small
correlation between grades and happiness. Showing how happiness can lead to success but that
success doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness (Flynn).
Siddhartha’s enlightenment was only achieved on his own accord, the help and influence
