The Last Word

By Oliver MacKenzie | Posted: Tuesday August 12, 2025

What defines success?

The Oxford Dictionary defines success as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose” — but is this truly correct for everyone? If I asked every boy in this auditorium how they viewed success, I think about 60% of you would say winning something or achieving at a high level. If you’d asked me in Year 11 how I saw success, my response would have been along those lines.

Now here I am — a Year 13 student, approaching the end of my school life. One day, I was talking to a friend about success, and our ideas were very different. That got me thinking: What actually is success? Yes, winning trophies is a form of success — but so is simply getting out of bed in the morning.

Looking back to Year 11, I defined success as winning trophies, being a top academic, and excelling as a musician. I believed I had to be the best at everything to be successful. I was driven by this mindset, and I saw everyone in my way as an opponent. Then Year 12 rolled around, and I was cast as one of the leading male characters in Legally Blonde.

The workload from this production was enormous. I was attending rehearsals three days a week, striving for excellence at school, playing cricket, and singing in two choirs. My life was busy. Being a perfectionist, everything had to be done flawlessly, and I spent so much energy on the nitty-gritty details that I drove myself insane. I stopped sleeping, staying up late at night worrying about schoolwork, the production, and everything else going on in my life. I fell into a dark patch and lost all motivation to keep going.

At that point, my perception of success wasn’t being the smartest in my classes or the best singer in the choir. It became something much simpler: I survived the day. Thank goodness.

So, what’s my point here? My point is that success is different for everyone — and it changes at different times in your life. Success might be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning and making your bed. It might be eating a good meal or getting to your classes on time. It’s giving your best and most honest effort. It could be something bigger, like winning a trophy — but I’ll be real with you boys, you don’t win a trophy for everything.

Self-gratification in what you do for you is important. Find things that make you feel good and do them. Make the most of every opportunity. Do the small things well. Give 100% in everything you do, and if you fall short, you can still say, I successfully gave it my all. Don’t let people hold you back. Carve your own path. It’s not your mate’s opinion on what you succeed in that matters — it’s yours. If you believe you have done well and given your best effort, that is all that matters.

In true OBHS fashion, I’ll end with a quote, from poet Dale Wimbrow’s The Man in the Glass: “The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life, is the one staring back from the glass.”