success is easily obtained but difficult to maintain.

There is a saying in the world of a professional box, that a real champion is not the one who has won the champion title, but the one who has defended it. I believe that this idea holds true for many other parts of our lives. Being successful is hard in comparison to becoming successful: there is no way to climb higher once on the top, besides, there is always a bunch of other contestants willing to take your place, and the strength to back them off can be nearly out.

Some may feel that success brings along knowledge and ability that both help to stay successful. In other words, a successful person knows how to obtain success and, therefore, how to maintain it. That is why, staying on to may seem to be a walk in the park in comparison to the struggle of the competition itself. But various examples, particularly, in sport, show the other side of the medal. It is hard to remember, for example, a football team that managed to win at least two world championship titles consecutively. The reason is that other teams usually experience much more of professional growth between the championships, because these teams play with stronger rivals, thus, improving skills. And there is no such thing for a champion team – there is simply no reference point for their growth.

Success is viewed as some kind of a finite goal by most people. They think that once they obtain success, it is all over. This kind of thinking does not prepare them for a hard work of actually maintaining their success. They are simply not ready for an emotional burden that comes with the success. In fact, the reason lies in the definition of gaining success – it is a constant work of learning and improvement. In other words, it is a hard work. And most people think of a success as some kind of a vocation for them, as a prize for all hard work they put in obtaining the success. That’s why such “successful” people just “let things slide”, and then they lose their precious success.

All in all, success is a difficult thing to obtain and even more difficult thing to maintain: it requires a lot of effort and energy. There is no universal recipe for success, not to mention a recipe for maintaining it.