The topic given here says that success is not determined by talent and hard work alone, looks and appearances play a major role. While I do agree that looks and appearances do play an important role in enhancing your self-confidence and improving your self-esteem when you are in your teens or in early adolescence, in the longer run their psychological importance seems to wither away.
Before discussing this topic any further, we must cautiously define the meaning of appearances and looks; by good looks do we mean ‘beautiful face’, ‘sharp features’ ‘a well-defined jaw line’, ‘a tall stature’ or ‘a pair of beautiful eyes’, or ‘a combination of some or all of these features?’ I think appearance goes beyond the symmetry and features of the face; there are the intangible aspects of our personality such as ‘power to speak persuasively’, ‘the fearlessness and the will power that emanates from our eyes’, ‘the kindness and the amiability that is there on our countenance’ or ‘the vibes of the moral character that speaks through our face and posture’; I think it is not the features and the symmetry and the color of the skin that define appearances and looks; it is rather the moral, the intellectual and the emotional qualities that are veiled in our appearances that define our appearances, and it is these qualities that, through our outward appearances, people unconsciously perceive, and are moved and touched by!
If we go by the outward appearances and looks of successful people, we shall see that they all have different levels of outward appearances, different color, and fall into a wide range of different personalities. Moreover, appearance and looks are subjective opinions, varying from culture to culture and from place to place, and from race to race. To say that success to a great extent is defined by appearances and looks would be tantamount to placing too much importance on subjective opinions of people; furthermore, not all of us are sensitive to outward appearances to the same degree; as we grow in years, we realize that there is something far more elusive than the outward features of a man or a woman. Also, success in itself is such a broad term, and varies so widely from one sphere to another, and from one person to another that while in some areas, such as cinema and modelling, appearances might play a very important role, in many others, such as art and business, it may have nothing to do at all!
Both Beethoven and Mozart, artists of very ordinary physical appearance, are worshipped and revered by millions of people even today, while many a good looking actors and actresses have been entirely forgotten!
Thus I would say that though appearances and looks might infinitesimally improve our personality, they can never play a major role in defining our success; such a generic term as success varies from person to person and from domain to domain; in some it may be of a little importance, but in most it has no bearing whatsoever!
