Everyone has their holy grail, their success, and it is a unique thing. I pray you have the courage to seek yours.
For all the haters and the doubters I have zero wishes, zero bad and zero good. Yet, in all honesty, my inner child blows raspberries at them all from behind my eyes and smile. For those whom have given their love unconditionally, I wish them every success too. For them I would do anything. That's the way love is.
The success of the comfortable and that of the disadvantaged must be seen though different lenses. In the advantaged population success is common and the route to it is enjoyable challenge set within a life of health. In the disadvantaged population success is the exception, most are suffering mental pain and lack of resources, lack of even the time to love and nurture. Those who succeed from this population are escaping pain, they are tough and thus go very far once they have the knack of success. Their journey though is a road of jagged glass and bleeding soles. The end result may look the same, yet one was in heaven and the other in hell. We all want, need and deserve an environment that gives enough time for love, nurture, play and feeling valued in our community. And if we do that, isn't that success for us all? Isn't that when humans, the preeminent social species, shows why it is we are at the top of the tree?
If success is defined in such narrow ways, as by monetary riches or fame, or perhaps intellectual achievement, then we miss all the things that make life so wonderful and worth living. What of the success of the parents who raise happy children? The children then become wonderful members of their community, empathic parents to their own children and guardians of the environment. How can we speak of success separate from all that really matters and brings us health and joy? Why is the concept of "mastery" so limited to the endeavours that bring the glories of ego instead of the wisdom of cooperation?
Privilege and advantage are the same thing. Yet often we miss how they are formed from many small benefits that accumulate into large success. It is no coincidence that the brain develops in layers of neurones rather than by singular events, much the same way a house can be built of rows of bricks, hence it takes time to build a true sense of love and trust. Solid learning takes time and a steady, reliable environment. All of these ideas (privilege, success, trust, love and learning) are related because it is how we are wired. Hence in our world money brings the biggest privilege because it buys us the best environment; it is a chance to live in a pocket of plenty - plenty of love, food, water, shelter, family and such. And so the only true way to succeed as a person of privilege, as a person with the advantage of money, is to dedicate yourself to making this a world where everyone has their needs met, where everyone lives well and the "pocket of plenty" is expanded to include all. Having a good environment to thrive in should never be restricted by "pyramid scheme" ideologies" that suppress the advances the masses need.
Spread your wings, my dove. For the baby bird only finds they can fly when they leap into the air. Trust that you have created yourself well, that as an athlete waits upon the starting blocks with well toned muscles, your brain is ready for this. Everyone you ever met, or certainly those with an open heart, feels deeply that you can lead, that you are more capable than they of making good choices on behalf of others. For you success is measured in the benefits you give to society and nature, and that in itself is success. So, it is time.
There are better and worse versions of loss. We are aiming for the better version because then we have the strongest base possible for rebuilding. That is our victory, it is the only one on the table, and it is a painful, sad and desperately awful form of success. Society can fall a hundred stories, seventy, thirty... whatever happens, however much we win, it will be measured in how much more we could have lost than we did. I'm sorry the news is that bleak. But, there you go.