The Slippery Slope of Successes

The Mega Million’s jackpot caught just about everyone’s eye this week. Who wasn’t fascinated by the fact that there was a $390 MILLION dollar prize sitting out there? If people won, great! If they lost – the prize gets bigger! The drama of it all was what most television shows dream of. And by this morning, we knew that a Georgia Trucker by the name of Ed Nabors and a Yet-To-Be-Identified-Winner in New Jersey were each going to get over $116 million a piece before taxes. And what was my first reaction?

Wow…$116 million is a nice chunk of change. I don’t know if I’d want that kind of trouble.

Yeah, yeah. You all think I’ve lost it. Could I just walk away from a prize like that? Probably not. But, I would want to. Why? Because I am a believer in the notion that success pisses other people off and it can adversely affect someone’s life.

This is not to say that I don’t wish to have success. I just wish people would learn how to handle it. And this is both for those finding success and those who envy them. My fondest dream in this entire world is to be an accomplished writer. I would love for this blog to just get huge. I want to finish my novel, publish it, and have it blow up. I want it to be an Oprah’s Book Club selection! I want a New York Times Bestseller! I want to sell the movie rights! When I get all this, I can have anything I want.

But as I type away creating and editing, I can’t help but think there’s a flipside to it all. Weird family coming out of the wood work asking for things. Current family fighting over what I hope to provide. Fair-weather friends who just want to hang onto me. Being successful can be great…but there’s this whole other side to it!

Remember that Ben Stiller/Jack Black flick Envy? (Yes, it was a bad movie. No, I don’t want to explain why I was watching it) In it, Stiller and Black are best friends. Black comes up with a product idea and offers his best bud buy in for a mere $2000. Stiller’s character didn’t bite – but the product takes off and Black gets rich. Stiller soon starts to become jealous of his friends success, getting pissed at his friend’s generosity, and then actually tries to sabotage his life.

Think about your best friend, or your closest family member. Now imagine turning on them and getting angry with them because they have something that you don’t. It seems pretty petty and stupid, right? Unfortunately, it has become a big part of our societal culture today.

It’s easy to say that money is the problem. Don’t they say that money is the root of all evil? It can turn (and has turned) mother against son. It’s started wars. It’s crashed nations. But you know what? It’s not just material success that can change people. Even the fortunes or good luck of situations can mess with the relationships in your lives.

I have a friend at work. She, like me, was recognized with an Employee of the Year Award at our holiday party. She’s a lot like me – and I don’t think she’s gotten a big head or anything since winning it. It’s not like we got a raise or anything, LOL! Basically, we got a stone trophy for our desks that said “thank you” for all the hard work.

But recently she told me she would turn in the trophy if she could just get it back to the way it was. She feels that people treat her differently now. And it’s not those casual acquaintances you see around the halls at work – they are people she actually considers friends. They make jokes about being the pet of the department. Anytime she gets something done or garners another bit of praise, they say it must be because she’s an award winner. They (supposedly) jokingly equated the award to butt kissing. She took it in stride the first few weeks. But as they became more prevalent, it left a bad taste in her mouth. “The worse part is that I don’t think they even realize it,” she said. “Most of them think it’s still a joke.”

I feel bad for her. The first thing she wanted to do at the awards banquet was thank each of her teammates and her boss. When she got back to work the next week, she wrote her manager an e-mail thanking her for the opportunities that she was provided. But the most tragic thing to me is that she’s willing to throw away her achievements just so she can have acceptance from her peers.

Like many things in our world today – achievements have become a source of competition. And like all competition, there are winners and there are losers. The losers just seem to be less than gracious nowadays. They put down the winners because they want someone to feel as bad as they do. Think about how many baseball and football coaches are fired every year for not obtaining “success.” Think of the class nerd getting beat up by the class bully. Think of all the jokes we make about celebrities and how we thrive on their pitfalls.

Being too accomplished is akin to being an adulterer in Puritan times. If you’re not successful, you don’t want anyone else to be. People who are seemingly good at EVERYTHING they do are not considered a “talented person.” No, they’re spitefully labeled an “overachiever.” We hate what we can’t have, but we refuse to change the circumstances to fix it.

How messed up are we as humans if we’re willing to hate on people for EARNED success? Why can we no longer be happy for someone’s achievements? It’s better than the alternative, right?

I don’t know about you – but I never said I wanted to a slacker/failure when I grew up!