Have you ever caught yourself in the middle of a conversation involving success only to realize that the entire subject was predicated on wealth? Have you ever talked about someone’s occupation relative to their financial status? Have you prejudged someone based on the type of clothes they wear or car they drive?
Why do we link success with money?
How could anyone deny such a connection?
A successful person is someone who has made a billion dollars; maybe someone who has made a million dollars. He is someone who has bought a summer home, a winter home, and an apartment in New York. The affordability of luxury means nothing to the successful person because he does not think at all about affordability. It is an afterthought, an inconsequential notion that is shrugged off.
We see them all over the television. We read about them in our Fortune magazines. We are completely aware of their net worth, and we admire them for it.
Then there are the unsuccessful. These are individuals cannot afford the trip, the car, the house, the lifestyle. You will never see a Hollywood beauty cuddling next to one of these men. That is not how success works.
This is not to say that the unsuccessful have no dreams of success; on the contrary, they do. They dream bigger than the billionaires because their skies are unlimited; but until they win the lottery or inherit daddy’s company success won’t be embroidered on their bathroom towels.
The accomplishment of an aim or purpose: this is the definition of success, but so is the attainment of popularity or profit. The latter—it would seem—is more telling of our civilizations. The former seems like a throwback to a paradise lost.
If we were to reclaim the first definition, use it as it should be, then perhaps we might change our views about success. Perhaps all of us would be successful in our own rights. We might all be success stories. Some of us would be successful for graduating high school. Some of us would be successful for starting a family. Some of us would even be successful for delivering the garbage every day to the local landfill.
Then if all of were to see one another as success stories, then maybe we would engender more peace and respect for each other; maybe success would no longer be based on riches.
