This is a hard question to answer. Everyone has a different opinion about what success means. One man might be considered successful by some people while he is not deemed to be successful by others. People do not use the same criteria when they judge success. Some people judge success on the trappings of wealth such as cars, clothes, and houses. Other people judge them on their job, position, fame, or status in society.
When you achieve success, you must maintain your status. This is not easy to do. The mutability of fortune means that your luck can change at any time which can affect your status of success. Through no fault of his own, a successful businessman might have his business wiped out by inflation or the vagaries of the market. Unforeseen injuries may ruin a career of a sports star. A bad decision could tarnish the reputation of a political leader. A successful person would have to know when to retire so as to maintain his reputation of being a success.
In order to achieve success you must possess certain qualities. First it would be better to be endowed with natural ability in whatever field you wish to excel in. You also have to have self-belief and confidence in your own abilities. You must be hard working and focused on your goal. You should not be put off by failure because it is only temporary. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work you can be successful in your endeavors.
Success is something which anybody can attain if they set their mind to it. You can be a successful doctor, a successful lawyer, a successful engineer, a successful athlete, a successful criminal, a successful serial killer. As you can see being successful is not necessarily something good. A successful doctor might be a successful person, but a successful criminal would hardly achieve the same status in the eyes of others. So we need a better definition of what it means to be a successful person. Merely being the best at something does not make one a successful person. A successful person is someone who conducts himself in the manner worthy of a human being. All human beings are capable of conducting themselves in such a way. The Greeks had a word for it, arete or excellence. Just as the arete of a knife is to cut efficiently and the arete of a lamp is to cast a light, the arete of a successful person surely must be to display virtue. If he demonstrates justice, prudence, temperance, and courage with respect to his fellow man, then surely he has achieved the arete of a human being and thus is a successful person.
At the start of this essay I pointed out that everyone has a different opinion of what success means. There are many opinions, but there is only one person who actually knows whether someone has been a success. The best judge is ourselves through our inner voice or conscience. At the end of your time on Earth if you can look back at yourself and honestly say that you have done the best you could to be worthy of the title of a human being, then you can say that you hope it was good enough for you to be considered a successful person.