Failure and Success

Here is one of the late John Steinbeck’s profound observations on humanity. This is what he had said in one of his many great works:

"The things we admire in men, kindness, and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."*

Evidently, greed, meanness, self-interest and dishonesty will remain to be the timeless prerequisites to succeed. Today there are many high-profile business and political leaders among us. Many of them had followed the harsh Draconian path to lead. And some of them acted randomly and did whatever they pleased.
We know it is not easy to change human nature.

But on the other side of the humanity, loving and generous people do exist. There are many of them. Some are well known and some are not. For example, the down-to-the-earth people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates had spent billions on their desire to make our world a better one. I doubt either of them had ever had to use any harsh measure while pursuing their success in life. It seems that people can be successful in life through their kindness and understanding toward others. - Ayee

*"Cannery Row," John Steinbeck, 1945