Changing the definition of success
Why is it that for the vast majority of people in this society the word “success” is inextricably linked with the word “wealth”? Why is it that any modern definition of success is based on personal earnings and value of possessions?
For most recent college graduates, of which I am one, the pressure to go out into the world and become a “success” is overbearing.
Grinning portraits beam from alumni walls – the implication being if you are not here in five or ten years time, you haven’t made it.
But what does this abstract concept actually equate to in real terms?
Well to this society success is the car you drive. Success is the area you live in. Success is your professional title.
Success, we are led to believe, is a monetary concept.
And this perverse mindset is perpetuated by the young, desperate not to fail, desperate to become “a success” whatever the definition.
Success is not based on the quality or honesty of your work, but rather the return you get for it. Former AIB chairman Eugene Sheehy earned (including bonuses and pension contributions) €892,000 in 2009 – the same year the bank made a loss of €2.65 billion.
Goldman Sachs made billions selling extremely risky products to customers, which the company then bet on to fall in value. When interviewed by the US congress, CEO Lloyd Blankfein said that in his opinion Goldman Sachs had no obligation to inform customers that the company was benefitting from products they were selling failing. Despite the destruction and devastation this policy would cause, in 2007 Mr. Blankfein went home with $100 million.
Success is not about the contribution you make to the welfare of your society, it is about the amount you personally amass. Just look at the example given by those in power - social welfare rates are cut, social programmes are axed for those most in need, while the “wealth creators” are bailed out to the tune of billions.
We live in a society where “successful” politicians are more concerned with perpetuating lies to protect their own reputation than doing what is right. Because politicians know that in our society it is more in beneficial to appear honest rather than to be honest. The illusion of respectability is more important than the practical application of ethics.
As soon as we leave school and college we are conditioned to see each other as economic competitors in a cut-throat labour market. There is no room for friendship or decency when it comes to securing a job. Earning vast amounts of money in an office is the most important thing in the world, we are told.
And this perverse culture leaves us all perpetually anxious. We are scared we won’t be able to afford that six bedroom house for our family of four. Scared we won’t be able to drive that flashy Range Rover on smooth paved roads. Afraid we won’t be able to send our children to the most prestigious private school, with the best facilities. Because the other option is to be termed a “failure”.
“Failure” too is a word that has come to be viewed in purely economic terms. Failure is having an education and not earning more than your parents. Failure is not earning more than the graduate next to you. Failure is being seen by your friends and families as a lesser economic being.
When one categorises the world between success and failure in monetary terms, the poor aren’t to be helped – they are to be mocked. They are to be scorned. They are to have their entitlements cut, their amenities dismantled, their homes repossessed and they are to be told “Why don’t you try harder? Why don’t you make something of yourself?”
When this is our definition of success, is it any wonder we are in the economic turmoil we are in? When success and greed are interchangeable? The bankers, the property developers, the speculators – they operated perniciously with the blessings of a free market society. They were patted on the back (literally in some cases by former financial regulator Patrick Neary) by a society that told them to strive for profit at all costs.
If we are to ensure that the current crisis we find ourselves in does not repeat itself we need more than increased regulation, more than a contingency plan, more than international economic agreements. We need to change our very definition of success.
