A.D.’s Soapbox - How Bad Do You Want To Be Successful?

Everyday people often daydream of what it would be like to be rich and famous. I can bet Oprah isn’t dreaming of going back to being poor. I, myself wonder what it would be like to party with the stars, date model chicks, possess an unlimited bank account and grace the cover of every magazine. Everybody wants to be famous but only a handful of people in Hollywood are actually talented. In the words of Bruno Mars in that Travis McCoy song “Billionaire”, I too want to be a Billionaire so f***ing bad. But at what cost? Without sounding overtly religious, do my material wants and needs outweigh the fact that my immortal soul may burn? What is the key to Being Successful?

With all that being said, I didn’t grow up on food stamps or welfare checks, but I knew a few people who did and some that are still on those things. I was fortunate enough to have loving grandparents, food, shelter and clothing plus all the essentials and excluding anything like toys or whatever that I wanted but didn’t need. There have been times growing up I had to miss a few meals, play in the dark (the lights were cut off) and take plenty of cold showers (the heat was off). I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like for someone who’s got it worse off. That kid who has to sell drugs because no one else is supporting them or their family, the kid that gets high to escape the harshness of reality, and all those working class people working to live.

It’s hard to stay sane when we live in a country that says you aren’t truly happy unless you buy the most expensive thing out there even if you don’t know what it is or even need it, the more zeros behind it the better. We’ve got overpaid steroid junkies running a ball up and down a field or shooting a ball into a net. Actors that get paid way too much to produce less than satisfactory work, plus a music industry that’s designed to keep the artist in debt. What really makes it worse is it that there seems to be different versions of America, there’s the one you and I live in and there’s the one that allows people like Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton to walk free after continuously breaking the law. Some people rap about committing and some even go as far as to commit serious crimes that would give an average person life in prison, but they come home the same year. Newsstands are flooded with raunchy tabloid magazines offering big money for celebrity gossip. You know it’s foul, when being a celebrity paparazzi pays better than most teaching positions.

As we all know from MC Hammer, all this is and can be temporary but it feels like no names fifteen minutes are getting longer and longer than these days. I’m too broke to be stupid so I offer wonder what it would be like to be rich enough to be dumb. Rapper Fabolous said it best, “Money is the root of all evil I thought but it’s when I’m broke is when I usually have the evilest thoughts.” Even Drake defined being successful as having money, cars and hoes. Who knew, thanks to Karrine Steffans and Monica Lewinsky, you could become famous by sucking d*ck? I guess instead of who you know, it’s all about who you blow. I often wish we could take a step back from our busy lives and pull a Ferris Bueller, but instead we often watch life pass us by. Success doesn’t have to be how much money you have or don’t, just look around at your life, I’m sure you’re blessed in ways you didn’t even notice. We often compare what we have and/or don’t have by what others around us do or don’t have. We call this keeping up with the Jones’ but by doing this, you’ll never be truly satisfied.

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