What does success really mean?

What does success mean? I asked myself this question after having read this week the "news" that Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, had overtaken Elon Musk as the richest person in the world. Shorty after Musk claimed the top again.

I stopped and start asking myself if the amount of money someone has earned makes them truly rich or not. To me, one of the richest people in the world was the late Gino Strada, an amazing doctor and founder of Emergency, who provided free medical support in war areas to save people's lives. To me, one of the richest people in the world is Roberto Saviano, a fantastic writer that sacrificed his freedom, to tell the truth and uncover how the mafia operates and that lives with bodyguards 24/7 since his book Gomorra was published due to threats to his life.

And yet western society considers rich the individual that earns a lot of money, regardless of how they made that money. A couple of weeks ago I watched "The Elon Musk Show", a documentary on BBC2. In all honesty, I would not want to work with or for an individual like that. He screams at his employees, dismisses them on a whim if they dare to contradict him, he reduces people to tears for the sadistic pleasure to see them humiliated as an exercise of what he thinks is power. We saw over the past two weeks his total ineptitude in managing Twitter's acquisition, and his arrogance when thinking that he is above the law as he is the richest man in the world. Richest according to what?

If we change the parameters and consider kindness, respect for others, and putting people before profit ... well he won't be anywhere near the top.

A few days ago I read a post on LinkedIn about start-ups and some of the statements of experts (according to whom I am not sure) that talked about making money and working to become as financially rich as possible. I have not seen anywhere in that post the mention to respect for the employees, or setting up a business to improve the conditions of society and the environment. It's all about "me, me, me".

I am getting to the end of a course on sustainability with the University of Cambridge that opened my eyes to how neoliberal economic theories are completely ineffective. Greed, measuring success based on how much money someone makes regardless of the damage they cause to society and the environment brought humanity to the brink of the biggest crisis that could cause our extinction. Resources are finite and yet some people treat the planet as their playgrouund and get praised for being great and rich.

I do believe that it is time to change the paradigm and consider the damage that those individuals do with their irresponsible actions, their selfish behaviour because celebrating Gordon Gekko's "lunch is for whimp" and profit over everything else demonstrates how poor these people are when it comes to being a truly rich human being.

Opinions expressed in this post are my own