My Idea of Success in Life is Happiness

In the words of Baden-Powell, from "Lessons on the 'Varsity of Life."

A writer in the Manchester Guardian who is unknown to me lately described me as “the richest man  in the world.” That sounds a pretty big order, but when I come to think it out I believe he is not far wrong. A rich man is not necessarily a man with a whole pot of money but a man who is really happy. And I am that.

I have known lots of millionaires who were not really happy men; they had not got all they wanted and therefore had failed to find success in life. A Cingalese proverb says: “He who is happy is rich but it does not follow that he who is rich is happy.”

The really rich man is that man who has the fewest wants.

Almost any biography will have its useful suggestions for making life a success, but none better or more unfailing than the biography of Christ.

My idea of success in life is Happiness.  Happiness, as Sir Henry Newbolt says, is largely gained by “Happifying.”

A thing that many young fellows don’t seem to realize at first is that success depends on oneself and not on a kindly fate, nor on the interest of powerful friends.

I have over and over again explained that the purpose of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide Movement is to build men and women as citizens endowed with the three H’s — namely, Health, Happiness and Helpfulness. The man or woman who succeeds in developing these three attributes has secured the main steps to success in this life.

I was asked the other day if I could define in a few words, say fifty, my idea of the best step to take in life. I replied that I could do it in three — make A HAPPY MARRIAGE, meaning that he who succeeds in gaining the lasting affection of a really good wife has won the biggest step in life. By a happy marriage I don’t mean a jolly honeymoon of a few weeks or months and then mutual toleration, but a honeymoon that lasts through the years.  Experto crede!

Yet one more item is needed to complete success, and that is the rendering of service to others in the community.  Without this the mere satisfaction of selfish desire does not reach the top notch.