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.
-- as quoted by Hugh B. Brown in LDS Conference Report, April 1969, p. 113
My thoughts: First, in today's world this applies just as much to women as it does to men. Second, I don't think we need to experience all of these symptoms to warrant taking a step back and asking if our success has turned to a failure. Life requires constant reevaluation. When I say constant, I mean it--daily, sometimes several times per day. The world pushes each of us to achieve success in a myriad of ways that are destructive to our eternal potential and identities. This poem struck me as a good reminder of what is important and why we must make an active effort to balance our priorities and put the most important things first.
