The faceoff: Success & failure in the corporate world
A couple of days ago, a childhood friend dropped in to meet me. Otherwise quite a jovial person, with a cutting-edge sense of humour and repartee, that day he looked dejected and worn down. Lines of stress and anxiety hovered on his brow like dark monsoon clouds. Immediately, I discerned that something was amiss. After some prodding, he broke down, and sobbing like a child, told me that he had been sidelined- once again- for progression in the corporation for which he had worked for close to four decades.
On hearing his plight, I found myself returning to an old, unsettling question: What is success, and what is failure? Are they merely opposite sides of the same coin, or are they far more complex than we admit? For centuries, sages and philosophers have wrestled with this paradox, leaving behind a vast treasury of thought. While their reflections offer frameworks and metaphors, none can give a definitive answer. My own understanding of success has not been static. Rather, it has evolved with time-sometimes subtly, sometimes painfully.
At different stages, I have measured success against different yardsticks, in the process creating an edifice that rests on four core pillars: family, health, finances, and professional standing. Together, they form a balanced architecture of a well-lived life. Measured against these visible metrics of the corporate superstructure, my friend’s journey seems grossly underwhelming.
The foremost reason is that institutions, by their very nature, lack warmth, compassion and transparency, leading to a cascading toxic downturn, where outcomes are declared without sufficient explanation and where, sadly, when progression stalls, clarity is rarely offered. This opacity makes self-assessment extremely challenging- as one is forced to ponder whether this is because of a shortfall in one’s capability, or the unpredictable dynamics of a complex system? Amid all this, the metaphor that comes to mind is a race-perhaps, a rat race. In any race, performance matters, but so does the referee, so does the track, so do the unseen rules that govern who advances and who remains sidelined, because when systems harbour unfairness-subtle or overt-careers can be quietly impacted, sometimes permanently, often ominously, leaving no scope for reclamation.
As for my friend, the story does not end here, because outside the narrow corridor of hierarchy, his life tells a different tale- he has fared well in education, his finances are stable, his family life is fulfilling and his health, for the most part, has been kind to him. To calm his frayed nerves, I explained that these are not minor footnotes, but that they are foundational achievements.
If success is viewed through this wider lens, the narrative shifts significantly, and success becomes less about podium finishes and more about the integrity of participation. It is about having run the race without compromising one’s core ethics. It is about building a life that, when viewed in totality, feels coherent and meaningful.
And that the saga of success and failure is not epic because of victory or defeat. It is epic because of the lifelong effort to understand what truly counts.
The writer is a Delhi based author, corporate coach and social activist; views are personal
