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I was not going by dictionary definitions, but by what people around me seem to think. In my country, success has very much to do with whether you are in a coveted job (usually meaning an MBA or engineer/doctor/civil services). This changes over the years, e.g. software engineer came and went. MBA is now going out.

People feel they are happy if they are conforming to the societal definition of success. Your society may be quite different.

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Dictionary definitions only reflect the actual meaning of words in conventional use by the speakers of the language. If the OED were prescriptive, then the definition of success would simply be "outcome", whether positive or not, as that is the original meaning of the word.

Perhaps your language has a different word which is conventionally translated into English as "success", but would better be translated as "prestige". In that case, you are right - happiness and prestige are two very different things. History is littered with notoriously unhappy, yet highly prestigious individuals.

I do concede that achieving a degree of prestige is a popular goal, and it is an obvious way of demonstrating success; but prestige is not synonymous with success.

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