Success is not a destination, but the road that you're on. Being

"Success is not a destination, but the road that you're on. Being successful means that you're working hard and walking your walk every day. You can only live your dream by working hard towards it. That's living your dream." Thus spoke Marlon Wayans, and though his voice is of our own time, the wisdom is as old as the paths walked by our ancestors. For men and women have long mistaken success for a treasure at the journey’s end, a crown to be placed upon the head once all trials are finished. But Wayans reminds us that success is not the crown—it is the journey itself, the discipline of the daily step, the faith of the worker who rises each morning to continue.

In the days of the ancients, the great philosophers warned against chasing illusions. They knew that to seek only the end is to despise the present, and to live always in hunger even when plenty is before you. So it is with success: those who believe it lies only at the far horizon often find emptiness when they arrive. But those who see it in each stride of the road, in every honest effort, in the sweat of the brow and the constancy of the heart—these live in success already, for they understand that the path itself is the reward.

Consider the tale of Thomas Edison, whose dream was to harness light for mankind. He did not see success as the moment the bulb first glowed, but in the thousands of attempts that failed before it. When asked about his failures, he replied that each taught him what would not work. Thus, every day he worked, every night he tried again, was already a piece of his dream. The shining bulb was not the destination, but the fruit of a long road walked with patience and faith.

So too did Harriet Tubman, whose walk was literal and spiritual. Each step she took along the Underground Railroad was not only towards freedom but was freedom itself. She did not wait until the last person was safe to call her work success; her courage, her persistence, her refusal to rest—these were her victories. She lived her dream of liberation not at the end of her journey, but in every soul she guided along the way.

Wayans, though an artist and comedian, teaches the same law that governed inventors, prophets, and warriors: that dreams are lived not in far-off tomorrows, but in the faithfulness of today. To work hard at your calling, to "walk your walk," as he says, is to dwell already in the house of success. The man who plows his field, the woman who shapes her art, the student who studies though tired—all are living their dreams, for they are shaping them with their hands.

The lesson is plain: do not despise the present because the future has not yet arrived. Celebrate the daily march. If you labor, know that each effort is a thread in the tapestry of your dream. If you stumble, rise again, for the stumble itself is part of the road. And if your eyes long for the final crown, remember that the crown is woven in secret with every small act of persistence.

Practical wisdom demands this: ask not, "When will I arrive?" but "How can I walk faithfully today?" Rise early, work diligently, give your best in each moment. Let your joy be in the doing, not only in the arriving. For one who lives this way does not wait for success—they breathe it with every step.

Therefore, children of tomorrow, take Marlon Wayans’ words as a guide: do not treat success as a far-off land, but as the very ground beneath your feet. Each step, each breath, each labor—these are the dream made real. Live not for tomorrow’s applause, but for today’s honest walk. For in truth, to walk the road with courage is to have already arrived.