Well, unless you want to get caught up in believing that being successful in the eyes of the world is that important, it's helpful to actually reflect that the end is not so important that we sacrifice our happiness along the way. Most people don't think very much about success when they're dying, or gone. Oftentimes, they'll think about how they have lived, and how they have loved. So it's a matter of reflecting on what's important, and what is not.
When we get caught up in a type of worldly success, it's helpful to reflect on death and what is important and what is not, in order to put everything into perspective. Death is a very powerful perspective. Sometimes we can get caught up in worrying about things that are not that important. With death reflection we can develop more patience and not believe in this cycle that everybody gets caught up in going round and round, and not going anywhere. I have an analogy of a motorway where everyone's going round and round, and it's such a smooth road and so much fun going round and round, that they forget to ask themselves where they're going!
I was in Singapore recently, having lunch with some of our students, and a woman came up (I think she was a part-owner of the restaurant) who knew my friends quite well. She said, "I work so hard, you know, while you enjoy yourself, I work during the week, and I work on the weekend, and I'm very uptight and everything...." Everyone was saying "Yes, yes", feeling sorry for her, and I asked "Why?" You should have seen her face, "I don't know." She didn't know why she was doing it! Often, a lot of people just don't ask, "Why?" "Why are we doing this?"
So, try not to get so caught up in everybody else's values, thinking that because they think it's important, then we have to get caught up with them. Because after a while of going round and round on that freeway, even though it's easy to drive, it gets a bit boring going round and round, and you realize "I'd really like to see a bit of the countryside!" So you go off the freeway and onto a 2-lane road. You have to steer a bit harder, and you have to be careful, because there's other cars coming the other way, but you know, it's kind of nice out here in the country. You get to see more things. It's still too fast though, so you decide, "Maybe I'll get off that road and get on a dirt road!" So you get onto a dirt road, and then people start waving at you! People wave to each other on dirt roads. That's my experience anyway in Australia! Everyone waves to you, because there are so few people there! Anyway, after a while you may think "I don't really want to be in this vehicle, I think I'll go walking up that mountain." The further and further you get from the freeway, the less and less people there will be to influence you in that way.
That's not to say we'll always be up that mountain. When we return to the freeway, we try to realize, now that we have a different perspective, that the end in itself is not just to go round and round on the freeway. After all there have been heaps of "successful" people throughout time, but most are dead and mostly forgotten.
However, a lot of people remember the Buddha. He was very successful in another way, and he's been influencing people down through the centuries. So it's how we influenced the people that were left behind, that's important, how we lived and how we loved.