Ticket to Success

'Money can't buy you happiness.'

I've always found that quote to be very interesting. Surely, we could all use a few more bucks in our pockets, but is it really what makes the world go around? 

I don't know about anyone else but personally I've always enjoyed working hard for a reward. The need for self gratification is a natural human instinct. We like assurance and structure despite telling ourselves we don't (or I do anyway). Fighting for a cause or working towards something always makes the end product 'worth it'. We strive towards goals and set ourselves aspirations in order to make better people out of ourselves.

So what happens to all of that when it all gets handed to you on a plate? What happens to self gratification and being able to be proud of yourself when money or power or status can get you your prize without having to work for it?

I've heard stories about people who from an outside perspective seemed to have it all, but inside they were only as good as the next man or woman. They'd been privileged with houses, cars and girls and despite all that, they slept less in a day than the woman who'd been pulling triple night shifts at work to provide for her children. Take drug lords in big Hollywood movies for example; is that really the life you want to be leading? Waking up every morning with the blood of more and more people on your hands who disagree against your money-making agendas? More famously, take reality TV stars the Kardashians and Jenners for example? Why is it fair for Kim Kardashian's sex tape-bought career to be the reason her half sister Kendall Jenner is Karl Lagerfeid and Olivier Rousteing's favourite muse when there are still millions of 17 year old girls trying to catch their big break in modelling by starving themselves to look like Kendall?
Isn't it the journey that always counts? When you struggle for something, doesn't it make the final product that much more worthwhile? Doesn't it give you a reason to remember the occasion for the rest of your lives? When you grow up, wouldn't you rather tell your kids about the story of how you had to fight for what you believed it to make something count than tell them you got your ticket to success by boarding the 'my-sister-released-a-sex-tape-and-got-our-entire-family-famous' train?
Success by default isn't something that should be handed to you, and even if it is, you shouldn't be happy taking advantage of it. You need to earn it.
Success is jumping up and down in happiness when your teacher gives you a sticker in nursery for that brilliant painting you did of your mum as a stick figured blob. Success isn't cheating and sneaking in to steal the page of stickers and sticking them all to your sticker-chart. It doesn't feel the same. Because it's not the same.
Success is staying up all night to finish that damn history report that you actually wrote all by yourself than getting full marks for copying and pasting that shit off wikipedia. It just isn't the same.
Buying your way to success labels you and puts a price on you.
True success is priceless. You can't buy it.
Success which is bought won't get you far. It will get you where you think you want to be but not where you truly belong. There's no merit to your so called success if you've achieved it by stabbing everyone that loves you in the back and lied and deceived your way through to get it. Neither is there any merit to success that isn't yours and simply your shot at someone else's hardwork.
Don't buy your ticket to success. Earn it.

'Success is liking yourself, liking what you do and liking how you do it.' - Maya Angelou