by SepiaTones

Created on: February 27, 2009

What does it take to be a success in America? Does the secret lie in education or financial savvy or the relentless pursuit of success? Is it enough to be astute or does it require a compulsion to win at any cost? It all depends upon one's definition of success.

There's an old adage that money cannot buy happiness. Maybe someone should inform the very rich. According to a 2006 Forbes Magazine expose, "the aggregate wealth is expanding in America, up 400 billion dollars from 2005 (Forbes 2006). It seems that more than enough money is not enough for some people. Why be rich when I can be mega-rich? In the world of the very wealthy, the race to be on the top is not only reflected in their business ventures but also in the toys they buy.

For the mega rich it's a game of he who has the biggest toys wins. We're not talking about bigger and better anymore because now only the biggest and best will do. There is an entirely new meaning to keeping up with the Jones'. Billionaires today have made a competitive sport out of owning 300 million dollar yachts, the likes of which only James Bond has been privy to a view. Though his life is hardly common, billionaire Charles Simonyi said, "yachts are the closest a commoner can get to sovereignty" (Blakeley 2006).

Likewise, ultra rich CEOs take over firms so randomly there seems to be no deliberate method in their high stakes acquisitions other than the desire to be on top.

Once they get to the top, the rich hold onto their money tightly with both hands, often passing billions on to their family members who have similar drives toward success and wealth. But are the rich getting richer? There is no longer the proverbial gap between the haves and have nots in society. It might better be described as an impossible chasm.

Thankfully not every billionaire is intent on widening this chasm between the very wealthy and the lower to middle class. Last year, American billionaire Warren Buffet gave away 42 billion of his money to charitable causes and made public a plan to give away even more, challenging his contemporaries to join him. Microsoft's Bill Gates has engaged in similar endeavors. Is this giving away the random result of sheer eccentricity? Perhaps they have experienced everything the rich life had to offer them and still came up lacking. Have Buffet and Gates experienced more gratitude than the average billionaire? This fundamental difference in people can be seen at all income levels.

In a country where the government mandated

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