Should Wealth be Equated with Success?
Many of us gush with admiration when we see a huge house with spacious rooms, a wide front garden, and a huge swimming pool. Flying first or business class is also a luxury many would enjoy. Many see such as signs of having achieved success in life.
Attaining wealth in the course of one’s career is not inherently wrong and is undoubtedly beneficial, especially to the education and well-being of one’s children. However, it would be worthwhile to consider whether wealth should be the primary mark of achievement of success in life. I believe that success in life should be defined as being able to rise above our difficult circumstances, build healthy and loving relationships with others, and develop our potential to the best of our abilities.
To do so, perhaps we could start with the basic facts of life as human beings. With our eyes, ears, mouth and four limbs, our primary abilities are seeing, listening, speaking and doing things with our hands and legs. Hence, our interactions with others form the basis of our existence. Some of us are brought up by loving parents who nurture us into sincere, caring and well-balanced adults who have healthy relationships with others. Some of us are neglected in our growing up years and end up having difficulties in maintaining relationships with others. If this latter group of us manage to heal from the neglect and learn through experience to love and build healthy relationships with others, I would regard this as success in life that is priceless compared to someone of the former group who has had all the advantages.
Similarly, a person born with disabilities may be able to rise above bitterness and find joy in life while achieving objectives unexpected of him/her e.g. swimming with no legs. Wealth then, I feel, should not be the primary mark of success. If a person has attained wealth but is haughty towards those who earn less, is he/she still considered successful in life? Not according to Proverbs 21:4, “Haughty eye, proud heart, lamp of the wicked, nothing but sin.” Money is a possession which one owns. It does not reflect the person that we are. How we treat others does – “Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moths nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Earning more than others is not a mark of success in life as everybody is born with different talents, inclinations or interests. Some are better in mathematics, some in languages, some are tone deaf, while some have two left feet. Thus not everyone has the capability to become a doctor, nor does everyone have entrepreneurial interests or inclinations. Whatever talents or potential we have, we achieve success in life if we harness them and develop them to the best of our ability, persevering through difficult circumstances in our life. In short, success should be measured not in monetary terms but according to the choices we make in our speech and actions – “Observe the injunctions of Yahweh your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his customs and his decrees, as it stands written in the law of Moses, that so you may be successful in all you do and undertake” (1 Kings 2:3)