Written by Kriti Baishya
What comes to mind when you hear the word success? Is it a high-paying job, securing the highest score in your class, or living a luxurious lifestyle?
“Success” is a mere word that carries the gravity of an individual’s identity. In the current world, success and identity have become so profoundly intertwined that from a school-going child to the CEO of a big multinational company, its meaning may vary but its essence remains the same.
It has been deeply associated with one’s sense of self. But what happens when we cease to perform those roles? What happens when we begin climbing the ladder of success in reverse by failing an exam, losing a job, or going through relationship breakdowns? The more pressing question is what exactly happens when success starts to slip away from us?
Constant Hustle Culture
We are living in a rapidly advancing world, where society values constant productivity over almost anything else. Everyone is trying to monetize their hobbies. Often most of the social media influencers are showcasing their seemingly perfect lives and flawless bodies while constantly offering advice on how to achieve the same.
Amid the constant bombardment of achievement posts on LinkedIn and Facebook, we see competition has become the very norm for survival, and a generation accustomed to dopamine-driven gratification, increasingly measures success through one’s Instagram followers, likes and view counts.
Slowly, our identities begin to rely heavily on external validation. As a result, the very essence of our individual self-image starts to shatter, the moment society stops quenching our thirst for approval. And what happens when we collapse under the burden of performing “the perfect role”? We start questioning our self-worth, creating a sense of self-doubt, and a feeling that we are simply not good enough!
In Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the protagonist Gregor Samsa wakes up utterly transformed into a monstrous insect. However, the actual horror was not his physical transformation but how his family started treating him as a burden once he can no longer perform the role of a breadwinner. His family fails to see him through the lens of a beloved son or a family member but more like a worthless creature, incapable of fulfilling their needs. It is then that his entire identity begins to collapse.
Now more than a century later, Gregor’s transformation feels very much relevant to the contemporary generation. Today, young adults may not wake up turning into a bug but unemployment, rejection, failure and mental burnout often produce similar feelings of existential crisis. They start questioning whether they are worthy of existing in this outputdriven world that values people primarily for what they produce.
Lack of Job Opportunities as a Trigger
India, being the most populous country in the world continues to struggle to provide adequate employment opportunities to its vast workforce. Consequently, a highly educated and increasingly aware generation finds itself facing a serious job crisis. According to recent data, the unemployment rate among youth has risen to around 15.2 per cent.
Similarly, with only a limited number of seats available in competitive examinations, millions of students are competing for a tiny fraction of available opportunities. Moreover, the growing concern of underemployment is rising in our country, with highly educated graduates; there are no adequate job opportunities to match their skills and qualifications.
Thus, we see repeated rejections lead to self-doubt. This raises an important question: Is it the system solely responsible for this crisis or also the lens for measuring human value? Has society begun to value utility more than humanity?
The Cost of Performing Roles
The root cause of this existential anxiety lies in our deep association of one’s self-worth with external validation. The materialistic society has so profoundly embedded in our subconscious mind the need to constantly prove ourselves, be it in your workplace, educational institutions, personal relationships, to the extent that we completely forgot to introspect what are we beyond this layer of performativity.
So we keep chasing from one achievement to another, trying to constantly prove ourselves in front of an invisible audience in the hope that recognition will validate our value. Much like Gregor Samsa was trying to hide behind his bedroom door, we try to hide our fears and insecurities behind perfectly curated filters and achievements. We fear that if we reveal our authentic self, our flaws and imperfect lives, nobody would stay. So, in pursuing an ideal version of ourselves we abandon the person we already are. Just like Gregor, we may realize eventually that everything perhaps is not unconditional.
Alongside the growing problems of unemployment and constant performativity emerges another silent epidemic this generation is facing- loneliness. It’s ironic how a world so digitally connected can make one feel isolated from society. Social media provided us with instant validation but it is fleeting by nature. Mere motivational reels, feel-good comments and large number of likes may help us get through a difficult day, but how long does it last? Until you target your next milestone to chase after the same validation.
Ambition and goals undoubtedly serve us a purpose in life but that should never become the only reason to stay alive. Are we not more than our careers? More than being the ideal daughter or son? Are we not beyond the roles society has assigned to us?
At the core of this existential crisis lies our tendency to associate our worth with outside validation. We have been subconsciously conditioned to believe that our worth must be continuously earned through professional success, constant productivity, academic excellence and carefully curated lives. In the long run, we forget that our value is not something to be proven but something intrinsic to our very existence.
In the words of social philosopher Erich Fromm, “Modern society encourages us to have rather than to be.” Thus, the most concerning question of this generation is not to dwell on “How successful am I?” but “Who am I if I stop performing?”
Reference
https://indiamacroindicators.co.in/resources/blogs/india-unemployment-rate-in-2026
Kriti Baishya is pursuing Master’s in English Literature at English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad.