The journey to success, my dear readers, can take many paths. There is no one road that leads there and when we arrive at our destinations, let us not compare our achievements in absolute terms to those of others.

Success can take many fashions, shapes, and forms. For some it may mean a whole lot of money in the bank or the attainment of an educational goal. For others it can be any point on a spectrum that includes a happy family life, helping a family member, relative, friend, even a stranger, along life’s arduous pathways, the overcoming of a physical, emotional, or personal handicap, career success…and a long list of other honorable goals.

Whatever our individual yardsticks for success are, let us always remember to occasionally stop and pause along the journey we must take, to take inventory and to give thanks, and assure ourselves that the sacrifices, the dreams, the goals are all for a good cause that can make us proud, and very significantly, let us be sure that we do not trample on others in order to attain our own dreams.

When we do reach that mountain top, we must be able to look back and say to ourselves that it was all worth it and that the success we each enjoy can be also be felt and enjoyed by those with whom we came into contact along the way and those waiting for us at the end of the road.

For no man is an island unto himself and what good is success if at the end of it all, one can look back and see only a trail of malevolent deeds and bitterness. If one is left standing alone at the end of the journey, one may well indeed have attained only a facade of success.