- : the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame
- : the correct or desired result of an attempt
- : someone or something that is successful : a person or thing that succeeds
Source: Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
A week ago, I was sitting in a hotel bar, just watching a baseball game, when I overheard a conversation from a few drunken businessmen seated nearby. They were arguing about what were the standards by which someone was successful. However they were defining success in dollars. A few numbers came out like ten million, twenty million, and even one hundred million. One particularly inebriated gentleman very loudly tried to make his point.
"Dude, I wanna be ______ that guy is loaded. He's gotta be worth a billion dollars. Now that's someone who's made something of his life. If you look in the dictionary under the word 'success' you'll see his picture. "
And as he said this, he made the notation for quotation marks with his hands. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to find that annoying...air quotes. Do we really need to know the grammatical underpinnings of the word you just uttered, or are you doing it for effect? Either way, I don't like people gesticulating near me, it's dangerous.
Yet alcohol has a strange way of making people think they're more amusing than they really are, or in some cases more intelligent, but in most instances, it just makes people loud and obnoxious. I would say he fit into that category, but he was determined to clarify his definition of success.
"What do you make? Maybe 100K a year? That ain't nothing. I make three times that. Does that make me successful? " he said and his eyes had this glazed over look. The others guys in suits were just watching and waiting, almost expectantly for him to fall. He teetered back and forth holding his glass, but he remained standing.
"Damn right it does!", he said and then burst out laughing, after which he immediately drained his drink, slammed the glass on the bar, and ordered another.
"So if you make 300K per year that means you're a success?", asked one of the other suits, a tall blond haired guy with freakishly large hands, and a weird angular head.
"Yep! 300K. That's the cutoff.!" the drunk shouted.
"What about kids and family and all that stuff?", the guy with the odd shaped head asked.
"What about'em? You can still have'em. But you gotta make 300K.", said the inebriated one.
All the other business men were just watching the two of them, as if a fight was about to ensue. They formed a small semi circle around them and patiently waited for a retort from the man with the big hands.
"So it's all about the money? Nothing else?", he said.
"Yep. What are you an idiot?! That's ALL life is about is money! I can't help you if you don't realize that by now.", the drunk man responded and waved his hand in front of his face, like he was shooing away a fly.
"I don't agree with that. You can't define success in terms of just dollars."
"Yes you can! That's the measure of success. How much you make?"
The man with the big hands, waved them in front of his face, dismissing the drunkard, "My dad didn't make anything compared to me, but I consider him to be one of the most successful men I've ever known.
"You're an idiot!", the drunk guy responded. "All people care about is money."
The tall blond guy stood up, "No that's all you care about. You can't measure a man by his wallet. My dad raised 5 kids by holding down three jobs and all of us went to college, and two of us are in grad school, and my sister is a doctor. Now that's a success."
All the other suits now looked at the tall man with the big hands with a sense of awe. Who was this rebel, coming in and throwing water on the fire of the drunken man. Who was this person throwing a cog in the wheels of their warped American Dream?
"That's impressive...but you're still an idiot. No matter how great you and your parents are, I guarantee that your dad thinks he's a failure."
"No. You think he's a failure...and you're the idiot.", the tall man said and he just walked off. The drunk guy called after him.
"F#$k you!", he shouted, but the man with the big hands didn't respond.
"Who was that?", one of the guys asked another.
"No idea. Just some dude who was hanging out with us."
"I'd say his night was a success.", I said, and raised my glass. They all laughed...except one.
SFTD
