We live in a society that defines "success" primarily in terms of money. Since children, we are constantly bombarded with the need to excel, to be "number one", to win at all costs. Its the Lombardi curse, "Winning isn't everything, its the only thing." What they never tell you is winning means someone has to lose.

My father went to his grave feeling he was a failure because "The Army had trained him to work on the wrong kind of airplane." My mother was heartbroken because I studied astronomy, not something "useful", like medicine or law. "I guess you can always go into teaching." How many kids have had their dreams crushed with that cruel calculus?

We've all heard variations of the tired old saw; "Maybe he's a good engineer (scientist, athlete, craftsman, artist) but he's got no head for business." (As if that was all that really mattered.) We live in a society that prizes commercial success and the accumulation of wealth, but not the satisfaction of a job well done. We are told of the dignity of labor, and the value of work, but the real lesson drilled into us is that hard work is for chumps. Smart people buy cheap and sell dear, and those who don't only deserve to slave on Maggie's Farm for eternity.

Don't get me wrong. Money is important. We aren't entitled to a free ride, we owe the world a hard day's work, and there is no free lunch. And doing a good job is a joy in itself. But money is only a means to an end, it is not the end itself. It is only a tool. If you don't use it to enrich your life you are pissing it away and wasting your short days on Earth.

So next time someone tells you, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?", look at them straight in the eye and ask them "If you're so rich, why aren't you happy?"

I am not ashamed that I never turned my talents into generating wealth. I am proud of the fact that what I have achieved in life has been earned with my own labor, not the sweat of another man's brow. And although I may die poor, I will die out of debt.