Over the years I've talked to, and been friends with hundreds, if not thousands of musicians, actors, screenwriters, visual artists, poets, comedians, authors and many others in the creative arts. Their income levels varied from zero to many millions of dollars annually.
Many of them were great at what they did, but only a few made over $100,000/year doing what they loved. $100,000/year isn't really that much anymore. Yet, many of them were happy, because they were doing what they loved. They were playing music, or writing and performing comedy, or acting...and the money meant less to them than the opportunity to do what they wanted. Many of them could be happy living in one room, working for $20 per set / show in small clubs or theaters, in the hopes of perfecting their craft, and growing to play to larger audiences, and get their message out.
The community in which I grew up didn't consider that to be success. Many musicians far more talented than I am were willing to starve for their art, and were so committed to their artistic success, that they sometimes spent years starving for it.
To those people, success meant pursuing their art and perfecting their craft fulltime, and not working in a shoe store to pay the bills. Just this morning, I talked to a comedian whose work I love, and whom I know will make it. She recently lost all the data on her computer, and may need a data recovery company to help her out. Chances are she couldn't afford our technology support services, or those of the data recovery company.
A lot of her writing was on the hard drive that had been toasted, and I wanted to help her as much as I could. I referred her to someone, and her data got rescued. A new hard drive was under $100, and she was back in business. I was really scared for her. Had she needed high end data recovery services, she'd not have been able to afford it.
The important thing is she's happy, she's talented, and she's generally a positive person.
Someone once said "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I always wondered what happens if life didn't give you a juicer. Not having a juicer is an impediment to getting the lemonade. Fine. Make your own juicer, but with an impediment, you get sediment. There was fruit juice before it was easy to squeeze juice out of an orange, lemon or grape.
Donald Trump didn't make his own juicer—not completely. He got a leg up in the real estate business from his father. He did a hell of a lot with what he was given, he is an astoundingly good self-promoter, and is still very hungry for the dollar and for more success. I don't understand that kind of hunger for the dollar, but that could explain why I'm not wealthy (warning: that last link leads to a Chris Rock video that has some swear words in it.) like Donald Trump. I'm not even rich like Chris Rock.
There are some political philosophies that tell folks who aren't doing well, or who've had some bad luck to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps.". Those "philosophers" assumed the one who was down could afford boots. It also seems like if one is down, pulling on one's own feet would more likely keep them down than support their back. But whatever. Trump got his boots from Daddy, Bush II was legacied into everything from Yale to the White House. I'm not so sure the whole "bootstrap" thing makes sense. "It takes a village to raise a child" seems a little more sensible a maxim/saying when it comes to helping groom someone for success, or for anything.
Richard Pryor worked his way up from poverty, to become a great artistic and financial success—in that order. He was talented, worked extremely hard at his craft, and got a payday.
Aaron Sorkin is a very accomplished, astoundingly talented, and yet, really humble man. Even after he'd had great success in writing TV, movies, and stage plays, he stuck to his values. He is very charitable, and is not all about "me, me, me", despite the fact that he pays far more in taxes than almost all his fans. He sees the insanity of corporate greed that those who employ him consider to be an ingredient of success.
I guess the bottom line is that people who don't compromise their values, and make a living benefitting society, and not ripping people off, and who love what they do, are a success.
I hope we all can achieve that some day.
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