If You Dare to Be Successful… Watch Out

Andy Snyder|May 12, 2022

We learned something new the other day… something shocking.

It has to do with your money. But it also has to do with a whole lot more.

It’s very important.

Graduation season is upon us, and we’re sending our youngest and “brightest” out into the world. But there’s a long list of words we can’t use in front of them.

Oh sure… the old four-letter words are just fine.

Foul language is no longer offensive. It’s par for the course… in the classroom… and the office.

But being “successful”? Oh boy, you’d better slow your roll, son. You might trigger somebody.

Canceled

We’ve learned from a popular podcast that “successful” has been deemed too subjective a term to be useful.

Imagine, if you dare, a graduation ceremony where the speaker is a “successful” local businessman.

It’s fine if you say he’s in the business of making money. But to deem him “successful”? Who the hell are you to judge?

By today’s standards, it’s assumed that he’s been given more than he deserves. He’s taken from folks who need more than he does. He’s taken advantage of the privilege that was quietly given to him.

There’s no whispers about his late-night hours at the office. No respect for the high-risk second mortgage he took out on his house to start his enterprise. And certainly no thought given to the months when he didn’t get paid… to ensure his employees did.

But this canceling of the word “successful” cuts even deeper.

Oh boy, does it.

We can’t say a baseball team is successful. Nope… They made somebody else lose.

We can’t say a young ballet dancer is successful… lest we forget about the kids whose families didn’t have the ability to pay for lessons.

We can’t say the valedictorian is successful. After all, he got good grades only because he didn’t have to work after school like his less fortunate peers.

In his own words, Warren Buffett won the “ovarian lottery.” Is he not successful?

Stupid Is as Stupid Does

It’s a bogus idea… the result of trying to create Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in an Instagram world.

They push for homogenized happiness… but celebrate dogma and filter out reality.

It’s how we get runaway inflation while leaders ignorantly push for tax breaks, more spending and asinine price controls.

Success, they say, must be dished out by the men in charge.

But reality (and the S&P), as we all know, begs to differ.

The truly successful don’t measure their progress in silver and gold. They don’t look down on the world and see who they’ve beaten.

They look in the mirror, they consider the face that was there yesterday, and they ponder what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong.

They don’t post to social media aiming to impress their (digital-only) pals. They don’t compare themselves with what they see on the screen. No, it’s the difference between yesterday and today that matters most. It’s the only difference that matters at all.

In Pennsylvania, there is a minority woman running for a Senate seat. She was born to an 11-year-old mother whose pregnancy was the result of rape. She grew up in a house with no running water and no insulation.

She won’t win. Her competitors have spent far more money.

But who is truly successful?

You know who’d get our vote.

Most probably don’t need to hear these words. But clearly plenty do.

Success isn’t granted by some external force or being. Your colleagues’ opinions can’t make you successful. Your wealth – or a piece of paper – can’t put you over the benchmark. And the government – by definition – can only take success away.

Dear friend, only you can make yourself successful.

We hope you find many ways to do so each day.

And when you do… don’t be afraid to declare it.

Success is often all we have.