Well the real secret to success in life as a human being likely has little to do with the ideals and objectives implicit in the “secret of success” notion. At risk of being too grandiose (which I’m always happy to take), beyond clean air and drinking water, the loss of intellectual curiosity (or the failure to recognise and nurture same) is the greatest threat to Western society.  There is an unchallenged assumption that our organised society will last indefinately. It will not. (How long has any democratic, despotic, whatever, society ever lasted?) It will be pretty exciting off in the future when the Western world is deconstructed and rebuilt in a revised form.  ... sorry GS’s “days growing short” post has me riffing in a decidedly apocalyptic vein