A short presentation by Alain de Botton on success.

He first discusses the idea of a “meritocracy” in which members in society are graded according to merit. Those who have the merits to be successful, become so while those who don’t have such merits are not as successful, or even fail.

He then discusses how forms of early literature examined or portrayed failure as tragedy and how much more healthy it was as a perspective.

Finally, he discusses success, particularly the manner in which we define success. Is it our definition of success or has someone else imposed their definition upon us.  He also defines the basis for envy in today’s society.

In short, he covers a fair amount of content in approximately 17 minutes. His presentation is interesting and thought provoking.

What did you think?  Leave a comment.

Tweet This Post