How to Be a Success

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A recent National Public Radio broadcast discussed the huge differences in salaries that result from the choice of a college major and subsequent career choice.

The presumption underlying the story was that you could achieve much more “success” in life by choosing a major and career like engineering over fields like psychology, education, philosophy or social work. Nothing was said about the value of knowledge itself.

It made me think about how we define “success.” To me, the presumption of the report shows how little influence faith – especially the Christian faith and its values – has on our lives. That’s because it prompts us to ask the question, “How much money can I make with this major and career?” instead of “Which major and career will help me serve others?” or “Which will make me happy, or contribute to my knowledge or insights about myself and the world?”

To cynics, the latter questions must seem terribly naïve. People who ask them will be “losers” to many people, including many who profess faith.

Moral Bucket List
David Brooks of the New York Times in a famous column last year wrote about his “Moral Bucket List,” in which he briefly examined the lives of people who made a real difference in the world. They did so not because of their career successes but because of who they had become through selflessness and concern for others.

“…It occurs to me that I’ve achieved a decent level of career success,” Brooks wrote, “but I have not achieved that. I have not achieved that generosity of spirit, or that depth of character.

“A few years ago I realized that I wanted to be a bit more like those people. I realized that if I wanted to do that I was going to have to work harder to save my own soul. I was going to have to have the sort of moral adventures that produce that kind of goodness. I was going to have to be better at balancing my life.”

David Brooks
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Brooks identifies two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues. “The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace,” he wrote. “The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful. Were you capable of deep love?

“We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character.”

This is not to disparage people who make money, or suggest that if they do, they don’t contribute to society or serve others. I know people who have had great success financially and have also been models of living out their faith by serving others. But if we start with the primacy of money we’re ignoring what faith has to say about what matters.  

As I’ve mentioned, the search for God is not merely an intellectual matter. It’s a mix of the cerebral, the emotional and the “social,” or the way in which we’re influenced by the world around us. And just as this was true in Jesus’ time – when he struggled against commonly held views that were distortions of Judaism – we must sometimes struggle against what society would have us believe about life, ourselves and God.

I recently listened to a radio interview of a man who supports a presidential candidate who is a billionaire businessman. The man who was interviewed criticized one of his candidate’s rivals for “never having achieved anything in life.” His candidate, on the other hand, had achieved great financial success, the presumed measure of a person’s worth.

Preoccupation with Money
We may deny it, but I think that view is common, even among people who hear the opposite at church or from church leaders. Jesus warned about our preoccupation with money and status, but the message bounces off us like a baseball off a center-field wall.

“Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or – worse – stolen by burglars,” says Jesus in The Message translation of Matthew’s gospel. “Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”

Obviously, “success” is subjective. Its meaning is different for different people. But for believers, or people searching for God, it can’t be mainly about money – in the choice of a college major, in a career, or in life.