When Is Success a Failure?
President Hugh B. Brown
When you are doing the lower while the higher is
possible,
When you are not a cleaner, finer, larger man on
account of your work,
When you live only to eat and drink, have a good time,
and accumulate money, then success is a failure.
When you do not carry a higher wealth in your
character than in your pocketbook,
When the attainment of your ambition has blighted the
aspirations and crushed the hopes of others,
When hunger for more money, more land, more houses
and bonds has grown to be your dominant passion,
When your profession has made you a physical wreck—
a victim of ‘nerves’ and moods,
When your absorption in your work has made you
practically a stranger to your family,
When your greed for money has darkened and cramped
your wife’s life, and deprived her of self-expression, of
needed rest and recreation, of amusement of any kind,
When all sympathy and fellowship have been crushed out
of your life by selfish devotion to your vocation,
When you do not overtop your vocation,
When you are not greater as a man than as a lawyer, a merchant, a
physician or a scientist,
When you plead that you have never had time to
cultivate your friendships, your politeness, or your good manners,
When you have lost on your way your self-respect, your
courage, your self-control, or any other quality of
manhood, then success has been a failure.
(In Conference Report, Apr. 1969, 113.)
