To quote from the great film Barry Lyndon:

"It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled: good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now"

What do you think GOG? Does "fame" or "success" really matter when in the end every one will be dust in 60 years or so? Does people remembering who you were after your death even matter when you won't be around to appreciate it? Does enjoyment of your present life matter most?

Fame is fleeting and success is relative.

By not having traditionally succesful life you kinda have to be ok with that or get better at life.
I'm just glad I didn't live in middle ages, I'd be dead already by some disease or a sword or by fire. =P

People die in the world all the time and mostly nobody bats an eye or want to think about or remembers. If your famous there's some article in the paper and that's basically it. TV and other media makes a lot of noise about being somebody.
Well, I am nobody and still somebody.
Good thing there's games.

If we are not careful, religion and God will be brought into this discussion, which are banned topics here, like politics.

Avoiding that, even success is subjective or relative.

I guess it depends on or at what you are trying to succeed in.

Installing a game from GOG on your PC, needs to be successful for instance, or you cannot play it, and may have done your money, if it was purchased more than 30 days ago.

And a wider perspective though. Is a mostly good life a success?
I would think it depends on why you are asking or even care.

For most people, life is both good and bad.
So if the bad hasn't been too bad or deemed less of than the good, you can maybe call that a success.

In the end I suppose, it depends on what you ultimately wanted from life or hoped to achieve.

For some people, mostly women maybe, having children is the ultimate success. And I certainly feel as a father, that I have at least achieved that success. I also now own my own house, another success. I am over 60 and still alive, so another success. I have a great media collection (movies, games, music, ebooks, apps, etc), so another great success of sorts. I've been married to the same woman for over 30 years, and never married another, so you could say two more successes. I've also had dogs as companions since I was about 25 years old, and the latest pair are the best ever, which is another success ... by my children anyway, who chose them, but me also by association and reward.

The list goes on of course.

One can always take the philosophical view ... works for me.

P.S. I also still have many of the same friends, which may be the greatest success of all ... apparently we still like each other ... who'd have thought. ha ha ha ha

I'm not a man with any great ambition. I just work on being good to my people and those that I love.

My great achievement was seeing my children to stable and healthy adulthood. That's done. Now my next great adventure is to enjoy the time I have with my wife, friends and family.

What matters to me is that I make right any wrong I've done, as much as possible.

It depends on how nihilistic you want to be.

Personally, I choose that fame doesn't matter.

Nothing matters, all will be cold lifeless dust floating in a dark empty void eventually as even suns will die. There is nothing after, nothing before, even the present is smoke and mirrors. Enjoy it for what it is.

I still fondly remember my father, mother and big brother, who are all now gone. I don't know if that matters though, after all they are dead. It matters more to me since I am still alive, I guess.

I guess that is one of the reasons people want to have kids, so that there is at least someone who possibly remembers them after they are DEAD! D-E-D DEAD!

But that's pretty much it. I never met my father's parents (because they were already dead when I was born), nor my mother's father (same reason), but my mother's mother I remember faintly from my childhood. However, I never had any warm close relationship with her, I mainly remember her being angry for us kids being too loud when we visited her with our mother. So I hardly ever thought about her after her death etc.

Some people also try to become famous so that people would remember them later, but I am unsure how much that matters either. Yeah I know who Marilyn Monroe is, a sex icon of her time but later I also found out she apparently had some serious mental health problems, and was e.g. very untidy, would eat constantly in her bed and not go to shower often etc. Yuck!

As for "success", I've never felt big urge to be successful. As long as I can lead a normal life with a roof on top of my head and food and don't have to feel poor all the time, I am fine. Just enjoying life as long as I can. Maybe it is a cultural thing, I think in many countries like maybe USA, Israel and China there is a much more cultural urge to be successful, in the eyes of others.

I don't feel bad at all that e.g. one of my high school classmates became a doctor and is how heading a whole hospital, and is apparently filthy rich now (in Finnish scale, not a billionaire or anything I presume, but certainly wealthy). Good for him, I don't really feel being left out because I am much "poorer". I'm doing fine, and that is good enough for me.

That + <insert specific Bladerunner quote> ;-)

The obligatory Al Bundy reference: click
:p

It does matter depending on the kind of success. If you mean becoming rich and famous, then no, it doesn't matter. If it means leaving something worthwhile behind after you're gone, then yes. It doesn't matter you won't be able to see the people you leave behind actually being better because of you, because is not about you anymore.

Leaving money is not the same, because then people you leave behind with money would not appreciate all that money... though sure it would be nice to leave some money behind in case of an emergency (only leave money for people already responsible and that understands is not a free credit card). But the teachings, the moments, the smiles... if someone gains some knowledge about life because of you and a simple gesture, then I call that success, and that is always worth it.

Successful in business but unlucky in love ... or the other way maybe ... or both ... or neither.

Success only really matters to you when you are alive .... after that it's anyone's guess.

Fame might mean your name is remembered, but before long you the person won't be. So you cannot be a definitive success if it is based on fame.

Success can be like grasping at a feather in the wind ... it floats around a bit and may ultimately elude you or just not have very much substance when caught.

Success is like that ... light as a feather.

pwah....

during dinner i read this article about how a couple of parents watched their child slowly disappear in the world of abuse
( drugs, prostitution ) She's now 18 and outside the reach of parents ... and law, it was a horrible read telling of this lonely little girl who always had trouble to get along socially that fell into a process of self mutilation, and psych wards stays turning more and more hostile as she went older and now ending with her parents helplessly standing by watching how that little girl vanishes from their lives

That depends on how you define success. For me, it's leaving the world a better place than I found it. If I can achieve that, then I believe it would matter. Not to me. But to those who follow me.

Success matters of what you make of it as Ryan333 mentioned. People have their own views of what success does and how important it is for them. Someone's definition of success could be quite simple or overly complicated. Some people see success as having a rich and easy life where they can do almost about anything, however, some look at success as being able to share their happy memories and live with others in life.

We are all going to end up in the same place, in the end it doesn't matter who we went, but it does matter while we travel.