Arthur C. Brooks argues that money, power, and fame don't guarantee happiness because they're intermediate goals, not the destination. He contrasts resume virtues with eulogy virtues like faith and family, warning that chasing accolades leads to perpetual dissatisfaction. Real success comes from cultivating love and meaningful relationships.
Here's the truth that I tell my students, and this makes them panic, by the way. I say, Mother Nature tells you that if you're successful in worldly terms, happiness will come automatically. Here's the truth: you need to shoot for happiness, and then you will be successful enough. Now they panic because the one word, enough, because enough isn't enough, because there's never enough. The eulogy achievements and virtues are all about love and relationships, and that requires that you actually think beyond the world's rewards. The world's rewards are money, power, pleasure, and fame. Those are the 4 things that you're always trying to get. But those are only, if you're going to be happy, intermediate goals. What you really want to get to is faith, family, friendship, and meaning through what you do to earn your daily bread. Those are the ultimate goals, not the intermediate goals. And that's why people actually stay in jobs that they actually hate, because they think they're going to be happy with the resume virtues. Deep down, it's, "I'm going to be more lovable." And that's the great goal in life, is having enough love in your life that there is enough stuff.
