by Nikolas Nies

Created on: September 09, 2010   Last Updated: September 11, 2010

In the capitalist society that has developed in the world today, sadly, money is the measure of success.  However, earning money can only be considered a success if that is the goal a person is attempting to achieve.   True, money can make reaching goals a lot easier, but reaching the goal is the real measure of being successful.   

To say that a person is successful because he or she makes a lot of money is open ended.   When we attempt to quantify our success or the success of others, we need to know what goals were attempted.  It is not enough to just say that a person is successful because they earned a lot of money.   What did they do with that money?  Was that person happy?  We can be successful and fail at the same time.

A person can live a prosperous life, being a very successful business man, but if their goal in life was to be an athlete or a doctor, can you really say that they were successful?  A person who doesn’t make a lot of money, but fulfills their dreams and goals, can you say that they have failed in life?  It is possible for a person to be successful as society defines success with money earned, and be a failure at everything else.  A person that works to gain monetary goals may neglect his wife and children.  Failed marriages and dysfunction can follow a man driven to gain wealth and fame.  Did this person really contribute to society?  Accolades may be presented, and at the same time the people in that person’s life may have nothing good to say about them.

Notoriety is given to the rich, while saints go unheralded.  Society hypes up actors, athletes and millionaires, while the best teachers, paramedics, firefighters and police officer are ignored.  The personal qualities that drive our goals are worth noting.   What drives a person to acquire wealth and fame?  What drives a person into a career that helps others?  If a person who has become successful monetarily loses their money, it does not change the qualities of the person.  Wealth does not define who we are.

When society uses wealth as the metric of success, that society becomes a vehicle for all of the evil that achieving wealth generates.  People without the means to achieve this success, may try to take shortcuts to get there.  Some live miserably thinking that they have failed because they do not make a lot of money.  And when society brainwashes our children in this toxic thinking, we create another generation of dreamers driven to succeed financially.  Society should reward those who give, not those who take.

Proverbs 22:1 tells us: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold”.   When your name rolls off of someone’s tongue, what is the response of the audience?  The mark we leave on this world is the ultimate measure of success.  Unfortunately, we are not around at that time to receive our final grade.

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