Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Success factors

Such an interesting topic.

As a radiation oncologist....and by Jon's comments, one of the "successful" people, I thought I should give my 2 cents.

Success most certainly cannot and should not be defined by how much money you make.....at least not for everyone. Obviously, to many people in the United States, success is defined by material wealth. As emphasized in the preceeding posts, each individual, however, has his/her own measure of success. In my opinion, success should be defined as having the means available to achieve one's individual measure of success.

I, for one, have conciously chosen to work part-time and make half the money as my full-time colleagues. I feel that I would actually be less successful if I worked full time. I say this because my definition of success includes building relationships with my friends and family, raising strong and confident children, having a career that I truly love (and that I'm not totally burned out on), contributing to my communtiy through volunteer work, and having time to to travel and pursue my other interests. I don't define success by the size of my house or the type of car I drive.

So what does all of this have to do with giftedness?

I think giftedness opens doors so that more choices are available, but it does not necessarily mean that you will make all the "right" choices to obtain your particular definition of success.

Do I think my gifted children have a better chance of being successful than "average" chidren? Yes. Do I think that success is guaranteed? Absolutely not. Do I think that it is possible for an average intelligence person to be more successful than an gifted person? Most certainly.

Do I think that the "gifted" physician in your initial post is successful? Maybe. He may consider himself successful even though he is working his *** off, lives at the hospital and barely makes any money. He may consider himself successful because he loves his job and he loves his patients and no trip to Aruba or anywhere else in the world can compare to the feeling he gets when he is able to help someone that otherwise would be suffering. I wonder what the world would be like if more people defined this as success?