Is growth equal to success?

Right now I am sitting at the AIESEC office down in the dungeons of my university and trying to concentrate on my assignment I have to hand in next week, a crucial key to my Bachelor degree. Unfortunately, I do not really know how to grasp the assignment, yet. So I am currently faced with a black out.
I am going to use my empty brain to reflect on a theme I have spent some thoughts on already, but never really let them out on paper. Firstly I do not think that I am a very educated person when it comes to economy or social systems, but I still care about the use of the term "growth". I mean, I am a linguist and words are my business, especially the understanding of these. Do you remember the last time you used the term "growth"? You grow as a person, your fortune may grow, an economy should grow. Growth is seen as a positive movement, the bigger the better.
I come from an organization, where a lot of success is measured in growth, but where personal development is a key learning experience. If our exchange rates grow, we must be doing good and if we grow fast, it seems even better. At the same time I hear stories of people going to another country to work, who do not get an apartment directly, whose job description is very different from the actual work they are doing. Would it be better to deliver less life changing experiences with a higher quality? We are working hard on delivering quality and grow at the same time, and I suppose it is similar in most other organizations.
Personally I want to grow in this fluffy hard to measure way, I want to evolve into a person with a positive impact in the world. But at the same time I think that this urge to grow makes us western people greedy and in want for more. Do we really have to choose between so many options? Growth is perceived negatively when it comes to diseases, cancer that grows is a bad sign. Here, shrinking is the desire of both patient and doctor.
Last week I have been to a conference, where a lot of Danish business hot shots where present and the theme of the day was "How to use the Financial Crisis in a positive Manner". One of the key speakers was the HR director of Roskilde Bank, Søren Enggaard. The bank was worst hit by the financial crisis, no one even wanted to buy it. They struggled their way onto secure ground by firing a lot of staff and getting bought in the end by three other Danish banks. The task of the current staff is to try and make as little loss as possible and prepare the organization to be handed over by 2012. Søren Enggaard said that this was the most exciting work experience he ever had. His bank has now costumers who also are hard beaten by the crises and growth is not their goal at all.
In times like these we are facing new challenges. Generally the western countries do not grow in population (just another success factor), this is achieved by immigration. On a global level, world population grows massively and especially in countries who do not have the resources to feed all their inhabitants. With the current perception of growth, only a small part of this world is able to enjoy luxuries like education, electricity and food. We need to redefine what success means to us and if growth has to be connected to us as individuals, organizations, or countries. What if my work in Denmark would be able to create growth in Gambia? Success should be accessible to more than the current small elite, because there are great minds out there with the ability to change the world, but with the lack of resources.
Personally, I do not want my growth to cause reduction in other parts of the world, and if that means that I have to pay three times the price for a banana, I would be happy to do so.