However, the true meaning of the word lies in planting the seeds of the fruits of success and becoming addicted to it in the minds of children, teenagers and the youth, in order to encourage positive behavior throughout their lives.

This addiction to success will henceforward become an integral part of their personalities, so that they continue to strive and work hard for it, as well as learning to be patient and endure hardships for their own initiative.

This in turn will increase their social intellect (savvy), which is one of the most important aspects of a person’s life, for it constitutes at least 50 percent of the ingredients for success in life as a whole.

However, like anything else, taking it to extremes can have its negative side effects as well. For example, some of the mistakes made by parents lie in the tendency to go overboard in their drive to make their children achieve the absolute, so that a student, having achieved less than full marks in a subject, may feel that it is a catastrophe and a failure on his part. His fears turn into frustration, which turns into anxiety, but his mechanisms for self-preservation will help him overcome his feelings of inadequacy.

In truth, an addict to success has a hard time dealing with change and life’s variables. He becomes irritable if his papers, his desk or furniture are moved.

Other characteristics in a “success addict” tend to surface around exam time and while waiting for his results. Therefore, the parents should be totally understanding and supportive of their children, to help them overcome their anxieties, and refrain from adding to them, even if it takes a lot of effort and willpower to do so.

Success becomes an obsession for success addicts, a means to an end, no matter what difficulties they encounter.  However, this addiction works in their favor, since it is part of their social intellect as well.