Morality and Success

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Instructions
When people are asked what they want in life they will generally respond by listing things like money, home, a successful career, family, and friends, etc. When asked to identify people who are (or who have been) successful in life, people will tend to point to people like Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Steve Jobs (ushered in the era of the iPod, iPhone, and iTunes), Warren Buffett (one of the richest men in the world), Donald Trump, Labron James, Tiger Woods, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift, and other famous actors, singers, models, high class lawyers, athletes, and the like. It is interesting to note that many of the things that people strive for, and many of the things people use to measure success, are material goods, fame, and wealth.
When asked what one want’s out of life, you don’t often hear things like honesty, integrity, compassion, faithfulness, loyalty, honor, courage, dependability, wisdom, etc. And when asked to identify successful people, we tend to focus more on money than honesty, power instead of compassion, and fame instead of courage. Most people say they want to be rich, not honest; or they say they want to be famous, not compassionate or humble.
I’d like you to think about why we measure success this way. Why, at least within our culture, do we measure success the way that we do? Why do we seem to focus more on non-moral characteristics, like money and fame, than moral ones (like compassion and honesty) when we think of success? Shouldn’t we think a successful person is a person who has become a good, moral human being?
In answering these questions you can respond however you would like. Perhaps you think some people really do focus on moral things, but just don’t say it as much; or perhaps you think from a practical stand point it makes more sense to focus on money instead of integrity, because you cannot use integrity to feed your family; or perhaps you think it is a shame that people care more about a bank account than they do the amount of compassion one has. Whatever your initial reaction is will be fine.
The assignment is to write a short (approx. 400-600 words) response to the questions listed above. Your paper should be double spaced, broken up into proper paragraphs, and proof read.