Introduction
Success is a subjective concept that takes different meanings depending on the individual’s goals and aspirations. However, a person’s success is determined by the unique strategies they take to remain independent and productive. The most successful people have been detrimental to their specific ways of doing things and their ability to perform, regardless of whether they are supervised.
Therefore, there are common traits and habits possessed by successful persons that one can learn to increase their chances of success. Friedrich Engels, Marie Curie, and Betty Friedan come from different historical contexts with diverse ideas about success. All their texts agree that achieving success requires hard work, dedication, and a commitment to one’s values, even if one must fight for social justice, pursue scientific discoveries, and advocate for equal rights.
Friedrich Engels’ Perspective
Friedrich Engels was a philosopher, social scientist, and revolutionary known for co-authoring the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx. According to his writing, success is directly linked to social progress and the overthrow of the capitalist system (Hunt, 2009). For instance, Engels managed to list the disfigurements that accompanied life on the factory floor despite the vicarious pleasures.
In his view, no one can achieve true success within a competitive society that perpetuates different forms of inequality and exploitation (Hunt, 2009). Therefore, since capitalists generally own the world, it can be challenging for an individual to achieve success without emulating the unique characteristics and habits that guide success. Thus, Engels’ primary argument is that true success can only be achieved by actively participating in the struggle for social justice and establishing a fair and equal society (The Nobel Prize in Physics, 1903, n.d.). For instance, Engels’ success was never smooth.
Although Engels was born into a wealthy environment to a successful businessman, he chose to confront the injustices he witnessed among factory workers rather than conform to his privileged background. His time in Manchester exposed him to harsh industrial conditions, which strengthened his commitment to social reform and deepened his collaboration with Marx. Through these experiences, Engels learned that meaningful success required dedication to justice, intellectual discipline, and the courage to challenge existing systems. From this perspective, I understand that to succeed, I should be proactive in any challenge while fighting for change and adopting new approaches in any field without hesitation.
Marie Curie’s Perspective
Marie Curie, a physicist and chemist, recognized that success is based on passion and commitment. Curie is well known for her groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity, which contributed to her success (Brian & Matthews, 2007). Additionally, she was recognized as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and later became the first person to win Nobel Prizes in multiple fields of science (Gunderman, 2020).
Although she was a controversial figure, Curie’s legacy is assured. In her argument, Curie succeeded through dedication, hard work, and relentless pursuit of knowledge (A Life in Science, 2017). She believed in science, where she could advocate for new skills and techniques to develop scientific tools through hard work.
She considered science has great beauty and, therefore, scientists are not entitled to remain technicians in their laboratories (Marie Curie’s Early Life and Education, n.d.). However, they serve as children placed before natural phenomena, which remain impressive to them as fairy tales do to their target audience (Magazine, 2011). In her perspective, Curie argued that for one to become successful, one must have a passion for their work (Marie Curie: Unlikely Revolutionary, n.d). As a result, they must demonstrate commitment and develop a comprehensive strategy to learn and continually improve their skills.
Betty Friedan’s Perspective
Betty Friedan was a feminist writer and activist who played a significant role in the women’s rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. She is known for writing numerous books, the most famous and credited being The Feminist Mystique (Betty Friedan, 2018). The book was credited with sparking the second wave of feminism in America. She claims that her success was about breaking free from the constraints of gender roles to achieve true equality across genders (Boomer, 2023).
She believed that women cannot feel fulfilled or attain happiness if they remain solely in the domestic sphere. However, they need to be evaluated by acquiring meaningful work and having equal opportunities with their male counterparts (Magazine, 2021). As a result, Friedan argued that to be a successful woman, one must challenge societal norms and advocate for one’s own rights and the rights of others (Second Wave Feminism: Thought and Religion, 2011). Nonetheless, hard work and commitment are the keys to an individual’s success, as challenging personal and societal norms does not entail idleness and laziness.
Summary
It is essential to recognize that achieving success demands effort, perseverance, and staying true to one’s principles and convictions. However, the three scholars were from different historical contexts and had different perspectives on success. For instance, Engels claims that success requires one to remain participative in the struggle for social justice and equality.
Conversely, Curie claims that success involves a significant pursuit of knowledge and passion for work. In her turn, Friedan advocated for breaking free of gender roles and challenging societal norms (Pierce, 2022). However, the three historical figures acknowledge that despite these differences, a one-night stand does not guarantee success.
Success requires an investment in the form of time and resources, including physical efforts, not excluding cognitive efforts. Instead, it requires time, effort, and a willingness to overcome obstacles and challenges. They believed that success was not just about achieving material wealth or social status but was also about living a fulfilling and meaningful life by pursuing one’s passions and values (Pospieszny, 2019). All these arguments sum up hard work and commitment through dedication for one to become successful.
Therefore, based on their argument, these historical figures shared some commonalities in their perspectives on success. The arguments and beliefs revolve around the individual’s commitment to their values and beliefs, which triggers dedication and thus success. From the review of the work by the three historical figures, I believe that to become successful, I need to ascertain various commitments by challenging some personal and societal aspects of performance, which can help in understanding success among individuals. Besides, success can be guaranteed by adopting different skills and dedication to advocacy, especially in terms of performance, with the mind of reliability and access to resources. Since the world is associated with limited access to scarce resources, one can’t succeed without adopting such techniques.
Moreover, based on the knowledge gained from the perspective of the three historical figures, it is worth noting that to become successful, I have to set specific, measurable, achievable, and attainable (SMART) goals and develop a plan for success. However, the goals must be specific but measurable to ensure I meet the aspired success point. Besides, setting goals and a plan alone does not guarantee success. I need to go the extra mile by taking action to achieve these goals. For instance, I need to break down the goals into simpler and easier-to-achieve objectives associated with manageable steps and identification of potential obstacles and challenges.
For instance, some societal norms limit individuals from being aggressive about available opportunities. To ensure a smooth passage over these obstacles, it is essential to advocate for change by struggling through different aspects that reflect the potential for success (Pierce, 2023). Friedan focused on challenging society’s primary norms, which call for women to remain domestic workers without taking new, aggressive opportunities available in the market.
Conclusion
To summarize, although the definition of success varies from individual to individual, Engels, Friedan, and Curie provided valuable insights into what it takes to achieve success. Based on their perspective, it is true that success is determined by hard work and commitment, where one has to forgo some pleasures to attain success. For instance, Friedan effectively presented her argument by claiming that forgoing personal pleasures, habits, norms, and cultures, including the influences of society and other beliefs, is a way to challenge these ideas and mythical perspectives. Based on these perspectives, it can be ascertained that success is only based on the combination of different aspects, including dedication and commitment to one’s values and beliefs.
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