A person can be viewed as successful in more than one way, whether he has led a spiritual,contributor or escapist type of life.

       Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim in one's lifetime.The essence of true success is what you make of yourself. It is the conduct of life that you develop, it is the character that you cultivate, and it is the type of person you become.Success in life is always a combination of hard work, luck and abilities.(Chidananda, 1997)

Achieving success spiritually is the ability to give up materialistic needs and attending to the needs of others or is the capability to inculcate faith and belief in a person. There are a lot of spiritual leaders in this world. Mata Amritanandamayi ( called amma for short ) is one among them. Amma is known to hug and bestow her unconditional love on people from all walks of life. Starting her spiritual practice from the small district of Parayakadavu (Kerala), Amma has become world-famous today and is known for her humanitarian activities across the globe.She is known to individually hug over 50,000 people in a day, at times, even sitting for as long as 20 hours at a stretch. It is said that she has hugged at least 21 million people in the past 20 years. In her case, she has achieved spiritual success by being a beacon of hope and a shoulder to cry on for these many people across the world."Our duty towards God is compassion and love towards the poor and needy" is something that she practices and preaches and is hence seen as a successful spiritual leader.

Another category of people see success in what they are able to give or serve a higher purpose in society. They have this constant sense of purpose to help in the betterment of society. For them, small things like feeding a poor man, or helping a blind person is as being as successful as anything else. People like Bill Gates for example. Even though he has earned billion of dollars and is rich beyond his dreams, he has donated over $8 billion to charity, in an effort to improve the state of people around the world..Also other people like Karl Rabeder, an Austrian businessman who founded the non-profit organization MyMicroCredit in 2009, which aims to reduce poverty in Central and South America. In February 2010, announced that he will be donating his entire fortune of over four million US dollars, including the profits from all of his properties, his car, and his businesses, to charities he set up in Central and South America. These people are willing to donate huge amounts of money in order to see the betterment of society and the lives of people they change. Henry Drummond rightly explained this when he said "You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others."

There also those who see success as achieveing unique goals like climbing mountains, doing bungee jumping or any other adrenalin pumping activity. These people are thrill seekers and are drawn to advenure. They measure success in terms of the most unique or most dangerous things they have done. One such person is Diego Bunuel. He spent four years travelling to 25 countries, trekking through war zones, and mixing it up in the world’s mega-cities. He is now journeying to the far reaches of the planet to discover its forbidden zones. For him, every war zone he covers, or every warlord he meets is another feather in his cap. Such people look back at their lives and see not money or spirituality but adventure and thrill. Helen Keller says that "Life is either a great adventure or nothing." All people who achieve escapist success, are those who want to look back on their lives and say they lived it to the fullest and that it was extraordinary in more ways than one.

          In the words of Bill FitzPatrick, founder of the American Success Institute, a successful person is “strong when toughness is required and, at the same time, patient when understanding is needed.” It is this kind of sound judgment and reasoning that sets the exceptionally successful people apart from the mediocre.

          
References :

• Chidananda, S. S. (1997). Success in life. 
• Amma: Healing the Heart of the World by Judith Cornell, (William Morrow & Company)
• Lesinski, Jeanne M. (2006). Bill Gates (Biography (a & E)).