Do You Need to Go Through Poverty to be Successful?
I won’t lie: I’ve never been really in difficulty in terms of money. But still…
My parents always kept on giving me money when I was young and now I just need to reimburse slowly but surely. Since I started working, it has just gotten better and better, and me starting to handle my money rather well has allowed me a standard but comfortable life. Nothing too extravagant.
So, as you could guess, I shouldn’t have anything to complain about. Yet, my French origins kick off and make me prove once and for all how the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” is strong.
And so here it is:
It feels like you need to go through poverty to be successful.
Now, I am well aware that the (very) few people who will read this can get offended by this. I have no idea what poverty is like. I believe that no matter how much I would read about it, there is no way I could actually understand how tough it can get.
Obviously, the people you can find on TV, online, and else, are the rare few that made it. For each one person “successful", there has to be at least 10 000 who didn’t make it.
It clearly isn’t for nothing that people who went through poverty and got out of it will work their butt off to make sure they never fall back into it.
Those people are often seen as true heroes. The ones who made it. And their mindset usually is on a whole other level than the rest of us. I suppose the reason behind this is that, to get out of it, they had to go through many hardships and think differently.
In the recent months, I have observed that many of my favorite writers here on Medium have survived difficult situations and often gone through poverty. I was reading this article just a few days ago and when I saw that Shaunta endured deep poverty as well, it made me think once more: Does she write well because of the hardships she went through?
So, do you need to go through poverty to succeed?
Well, obviously not. Many people have succeeded by simply working hard and doing what they love.
Yet, reading about how people got out of poverty is a great way to get a glimpse of the mindset needed to succeed in life. While you may (like me) have had a simple life without troubles, nor anything out of the ordinary, you can read.
Reading will provide you with knowledge and an understanding of what ideas exist and looking at it through your eyes will allow you to shape your mindset differently.
I don’t think I’m better than anyone, but I don’t believe either that I am worse. While it may sometimes feel like I am one or the other, consistency in trying to learn and improve will allow me one day to be inspiring for others and stop believing that crazy nonsense that is believing poverty can be a “good” thing.
