I have taken a little time off from writing due to work constraints: political, accounting, or otherwise. But Mang Now is going to be back with some regularity and hopefully on a weekly basis. As I am currently in the process of applying for different jobs with the State, there comes with it some downtime that lets me do some writing as well as other endeavors like studying for my CPA.
Anyone who knows me well enough will tell you I am not a fan of today. I find today’s world to be highly superficial, materialistic, impersonal, pointless, and for a lack of a better word, unsatisfying.
An evening or two ago I ended up watching Wall Street, the timeless classic that made the motto “greed is good” into a household phrase. There was an exchange in that movie between Bud and his father Carl that I think is often overlooked when considering the scope of the whole movie.
Carl: He's using you, kid. He's got your prick in his back pocket, but you're too blind to see it.
Bud: No. What I see is a jealous old machinist who can't stand the fact that his son has become more successful than he has!
Carl: What you see is a guy who never measured a man's success by the size of his WALLET!
Bud: That's because you never had the guts to go out into the world and stake your own claim!
Carl: Boy, if that's the way you feel, I must have done a really lousy job as a father.
I think that is often something we overlook today. In my opinion, greed IS good. It serves as motivation. It makes us want to do better, to be better in life. But are the words “material gain” and “success” interchangeable? That is an idea I have struggled with on a regular basis, and I think it is something a lot of people today struggle with. What I have concluded is success is all in the eye of the beholder.
To me, success is doing a job I like doing even if it doesn’t translate to making the huge dollars doing something that would make me miserable. It can be living modestly if it is with someone I’d want to spend the rest of my life with. Success to me is being happy.
Unfortunately, the media and society in general promote success in different ways. Making a ton of money is one way. Sleeping with as many people as possible is another. Is this an adequate view of what is success? I do not know. I will not knock anyone’s hustle, but I can point to several examples where people had attained both of those goals but were completely miserable. I have seen firsthand what financial obsession can do to a family as well.
I think what I am trying to get at here is to evaluate what is really important. Greed is good, but don’t let it define who you are as a person.
Alex Mangie
The Mang
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