When Rio de Janeiro was named the host for the 2016 Summer Olympics in 2009, beating Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo to it, the city threw a party like never before. Cariocas (Portuguese for Rio locals) danced the samba and stormed Rio’s famed Copacabana and Ipanema beaches in an outpouring of national pride. It was two in a row for Brazil — first the 2014 FIFA World Cup and then the Olympics — and all within a decade.

Despite naysayers and prophets of doom whispering aloud that the two global events in quick succession would push the country to the brink of bankruptcy, the then president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his administration voted to push ahead with the infrastructure that was required to host the major coups.

Five years later, despite hiccups, Brazil successfully hosted the World Cup and it looks like it will be the same story for the Summer Olympics this year.

With its bellowing cry of “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Latin for swifter, higher, stronger), the Olympics have always been an irresistible siren, drawing the best athletes to compete against each other to be crowned the Olympic champion for the next four years.

But what drives these superior physical specimens of the human race to risk life and limb (and heartbreak) to compete? What motivates them? Is it a desire to be known as the best? To bring pride to the countries they represent? Or is it fame and fortune (and sponsorships) for the individual?

I believe their driving force is passion and a belief that they can excel. Author Sheila Graham said it best: “You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy created by the universe.”

These competitive athletes drive themselves to the limit just to compete with the best. With a clear purpose and an unflinching vision, they battle each other, sometimes for only a few seconds, to be known as the king or queen of their chosen fields.

Unfortunately, there are many people who walk this planet who do not have any passion for what they do. They live lives that are mundane; they give up their dreams and “live quiet lives of desperation”. How sad.

But does success in sport (or any other field) bring happiness and fulfilment? Sadly, no.

We have seen many world-class athletes attain success on the courts or in the fields. They find fame and fortune, yet many soon realise that these things are fleeting, like the fickle crowds who chanted their names and then root for newer and more current ones.

Some millionaire athletes, for example Mike Tyson, who earn hundreds of millions of dollars during their career find themselves flat broke at the end of it. Tyson is not alone. The American NBA series has had its fair share of spent athletes. Allen Iverson, NBA’s most valuable player (MVP) in 2001, ended up with nothing after having earned more than US$100 million during his amazing career.

Truly, success in sport is not what it is made out to be.

But compare the last example with another successful basketball player — Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The three-time MVP, who represented the LA Lakers in his prime, parlayed his success on the court into a multimillion-dollar enterprise that promoted AIDS awareness, redeveloped depressed neighbourhoods, created jobs and pursued economic development for the disadvantaged and underserved youth of inner city America. Now, that is success and more.

While Iverson and Johnson shared many commonalities — a passion for their craft and a strong desire to excel — their final objective, I believe, was what differentiated them. Iverson strove for success while Johnson, having contracted the dreaded disease AIDS, yearned for much more — for significance.

But what is the difference between success and significance?

I met a well-travelled man recently and he gave me the answer. A septuagenarian who continues to mingle with presidents, generals and chief executives told me that the happiest among them did not pursue success at all. Instead, they pursued significance and found that success came along as part of the package.

He reckoned that the successful get what they want; the significant want what they get; the successful think wealth flows to them; the significant know that wealth flows through them to bless those around them.

The successful earn financial independence and popularity; the significant earn financial independence, influence, popularity, admiration, loyalty and respect.

The successful compare themselves with others; the significant compete only against themselves. The successful are quickly forgotten when they die; the significant leave a long-lasting legacy.

Significance is the difference between your average physician who succeeded academically and graduated from a recognised medical school and the rare doctor who travels to a Third World country and performs cleft palate surgery on children, seeking no money, recognition or glory.

The dictionary provides these entries for successful and significant:

1. Producing results in competition with others; getting what you think you want relative to what others have.

2. Achieving wealth, influence and popularity through accomplishments beyond others.

1. Producing desired results by competing against yourself; believing in something larger than life; giving in to a higher purpose; making a difference, not just a living; wanting what you get.

2. Achieving wealth, influence, popularity and admiration, loyalty and respect through accomplishments that endure even beyond the grave.

As my family and fellow Malaysians cheer on our athletes in Rio, I ask: how many of them will turn their Olympic success into lives of significance? I do not know but I pray they know the difference and like all good sportsmen, strive for meaning in their lives.

To quote Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at the 1908 Olympics, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Zakie Shariff sits on the board of two local universities and has a deep interest in developing strong corporate leaders

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