“With great power comes great responsibility” Whoever said this could not have been more accurate.
Powerful people all around the world are tasked with using their reach and influence to bring the world forward.
Whether they’re presidents working to increase their countries standard of living, or famous celebrities advocating for noble causes, you’ll see them trying to or at least pretending to fit societies expectations.
However, what they try not to show is the lavish, stress-free lifestyle that comes with their station in life. Sure, we may see a glimpse of it, but really, we have no idea.
Just take a look at Richard Branson.
With the success of Virgin, he’s got a free pass to live life however he sees fit. Really, if he wanted to, he could commandeer one of his Virgin Atlantic planes and skydive above the Pacific ocean.
If that’snot enough, he just woke up one morning and decided to buy an island. Actually, unbeknownst to most people, he’s got two. Some of us can’t pay our rent, but others can buy entire islands.
But just to make the poor or average feel even worse about themselves, lets look at the many other reasons why life is better when you’re on top.
Social Acceptance
When everybody is for you, not much can go wrong in this day and age.
For successful people, garnering a mass following, or even an understated appreciation, affords them the opportunity to avoid the stumbling blocks the average face in their daily lives.
Personally, one of the most annoying things I tend to experience is waiting for a table at a popular restaurant.
With such long queues and extended wait times, you would not be remiss for thinking they hand out gold bars once you finally snag a seat. However, for a successful man such as Bill Gates, these tales are mere stories he reads in articles such as this.
When true success walks up to a packed restaurant without a prior reservation, management work tirelessly to ensure they get the best table in the house. For all they know their experience is being recorded by the paparazzi, or the successful individual may even give them a shout out for the great experience. Either can be business changing.
Friends in High Places
Most people remember where they met most of their closest friends.
This is often limited to either schooling together or maybe meeting at a random party. We tend not to have many avenues through which we can meet others, especially the influential.
But when it comes to the successful, they meet such people on regular occasion.
Once you hit a certain level of success, most, if not all, of the people you interact with tend to be of a similar stature.
It will be extremely unlikely to find Elon Musk at your local pub having a pint when he could easily meet up with a fellow C.E.O. and enjoy exotic drinks we probably even haven’t heard of.
However, brushing shoulders with the rich and famous is not only useful for bragging rights.
With such friends, the chances of hearing about projects to even further your success are much higher.
For example, If two tech moguls happen to meet at an exclusive gathering, ideas might be swapped that lead to something revolutionary, all over a pint of Heineken.
Conversely, when I have Heineken with friends, the best situation to come of it is that nobody throws up.
Widespread Influence
As I highlighted earlier, success is often accompanied by a mass following.
A large majority of the worlds’ success stories do not really ask for fans, but the gravity of their accomplishments just draws others towards them.
Such influence can be harnessed make many situations go your way.
Take Kim Kardashian as an apt example.
Although the origin of her fame is slightly controversial, at the moment, she is one of the most popular women on the planet. With this fame and following, she is at liberty to do things that most regular Joe’s could not dream of.
Just recently, she met up with President Donald Trump and lobbied him to release an elderly female prisoner who was harshly convicted for drug misdemeanors in her youth.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the release of an unjustly punished lady, but at least some you know someone you would rather see free or pardoned. Tough luck.
The only difference may be that we don’t have Kim Kardashian, but that difference is enough to matter. Any attempts by us to meet the President at best won’t succeed, and at worse will result in a visit from the secret service if we’re persistent enough.
So what does it take?
We could speak ill of successful people and judge them for their lavish lifestyles, but the truth is, most of them worked hard to get where they are.
More often than not, the public only sees the glitz and glam surrounding their lives, never the hard hours they spend to have become and to remain successful.
TED talks advise us that to be successful we need to be diligent, humble and driven in reaching our goals, because that’s what it takes.
These men and women worked hard to be where they are today and despite some of their outlandish lifestyles, we have to acknowledge that deserve to be where they are now.
It may seem unfair today that George Clooney gets paid your annual salary just to give a thirty minute interview but that is the reality of success.
Don’t be jealous of it. Work hard to get there to.
We may not like it, but the truth is that life really is better at the top.
Now do something to get there.
