Success is not a gold medal, nor is it a Lion at Cannes, a million Euros or a marathon in a personal best time. Success has become distorted and although it can be achieved on a daily basis, it can generate the mistaken sensation of a gateway to happiness.

Success is not the privileged seat at a table, nor is it the reserved viaipi in the front row. Success is not 14 sailfish in a day, nor is it a complete album of postcards. Success is not a diploma, nor is it a transaction, a punch or something packed.

Success is not founding a company or entrepreneurship, as they say nowadays, success is not achieving what you wanted nor what you dreamed of. Success is a relative word and is a concept that shrinks and stretches, so success should never be translated into absolutes, success is personal and should always be in quotation marks.

So, what is success?How can you define that success we all seek? Is success peace? Is success finally doing with your time what you want? Is success being on the front page or receiving a standing ovation? What the hell is success?

After countless failures in my life and only a few “successes”, I must humbly admit that I have never heard or experienced a better definition of success than one: success is succession. In other words, and in our language, success is succession.

What good would Italy 90 have been for Costa Rica if it had not been for Brazil 14? What would have been the greatness of don Pepe if he had not been succeeded by Oduber, Monge, Arias and others, including Carazo himself and his own son José María? Can a father define himself as “successful” if his children are not? Not in vain, Jesus chose 12 disciples for his succession forever and focused on the foundation of the liberating movement that today gives us so much.

When success is understood only as the attainment of a purpose or a goal, the true meaning of success is lost sight of, for it must be one that endures, that is sustained and surpassed. Success is in leaving a position and then handing it over to better hands. Success is consolidated when it is surpassed by people better than oneself, when it grows and expands beyond the first.

If the rulers of a country focused on succession, they would understand the importance of working as a team, of making lasting deliveries, of focusing on the generations that follow. If success were seen as succession in a company, no one would ever play indispensable and intentional mentoring would be common practice.

It means abandoning any fixed frame of mind to move to one of expansion, one that accepts that we are there to be surpassed, for others to come and protect the sustainability of success, which is achieved by nothing less than succession, from generation to generation.

I made this idea my own and for years I turned it into a mantra that I have repeated on countless occasions. In the language you want, with words or images, sung or recited, as you prefer. Personally it has been like this: success is succession…. (several seconds pass, I inhale and exhale), success is sucession… (several seconds go by, I inhale and exhale), success is succession…

Then, it is simply done.