Can success be disastrous?
A common assumption maintains that every individual success can lead to the solution to problems or bring happiness to most people. Yet this point of view is proved to be fallacious for many disasters occurs after someone’s success, both to himself and to people around him, even to the whole society. We ought to draw some lessons from the experiences of those ever so called “successful people” in order to prevent such tragedy from reoccurring.
History gives us many examples that high achievers, being respected or awe-inspiring, finally became frantic and evil to some extent and brought untold sufferings to others. Shih Huang-ti, ascending the throne in 221 B.C as the first Chinese emperor, has always been involved in controversy because of his excessive deeds after his success in having unified the divisive and conflicting ancient China. With his personal heroism rapidly and infinitely expanding, Shih Huang-ti became arrogant, irascible, and no longer as wise as a usual great leader who would continue to flourish the empire into a further step. He was interested in magic and alchemy, hoping for an elixir of immortality. Many Confucian scholars strongly condemned his reliance on magicians and their obstinacy led him to order the burning all Confucian books and burying scholars alive. As the epitome of the strong Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall and terra-cotta army, which witnessed Shih Huang-ti’s success in continuously developed territory and powerful military force for strengthening his rules, were accomplished at the expense of over 700,000 people’s lives. Shih Huang-ti’s brutal reign brought abysmal disasters to people in ancient China and sowed the seeds for the quickly collapse of Qin Dynasty only four years after his death.
It is of prime importance that we should still keep a rational mind and pure conscience to handle our success. For a great individual, success means nothing but further responsibilities and new...