Measuring Success Success is a difficult term to define. The “Fallacy of Success” by G.K. Chesterton defines success differently than “The Sweet Smell of ‘Success’ Isn’t All That Sweet” by Laurence Shames. The two articles focus on different aspects and discussed their own interpretations of how to become successful. Although the two articles discuss different ideas, they both basically suggest the same thing. Success is not the measure of how much one possesses, but how one measures themselves and where one gains his self-esteem.
Chesterton focuses on the publications written about success. He claims they are worthless and a waste of time and money. The publications are misinforming the readers into what success is and how to obtain it. Success, as defined by the publications, is the idea becoming wealthy or becoming powerful (par. 1). The authors of the books are giving their own ideas on how to be successful or giving examples of people who have become millionaires, but those ideas will not work. No one could do the same things as what a millionaire did to become wealthy and expect the same results. Times and situations change or no longer exist. Chesterton believes that a person should make their own definition of success rather than…show more content… He says to not make goals that you cannot follow through with, but rather shoot for a lower goal that will ensure to succeed (par. 2). Do not shoot for the goal of making the law system better; just make the goal of becoming a partner in the business. Then once you accomplish that, you can shoot for a higher and higher goal until you achieve what you wanted to achieve in the first place. Shames uses John Milton as an example of whose goal was too high and failed because he could not accomplish this goal. Milton’s goal was to “justify the ways of God to men.” He failed and only wrote a monumental poem (par. 1). Even though Milton did not ‘succeed’, he still did great