I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I work for a big company, decent pay, doing 'well'. Then I'm looking at the people near the top, the senior execs, men and women almost interchangeable to those I've seen for years in my parent's social circle. Millionaires, 'high powered' types.

For the longest time I had an unsettled feeling about the pursuit of a 'successful career'. I never stopped to think, I just suppressed the feeling. Until, around 5 months into my job, I finally admitted to myself something I've known deep down since I was a kid: none of these people are really happy with what they've spent the majority of their adult lives doing - or creating. None of them. No matter how hard I try and convince myself otherwise I see miserable, worn out middle aged people who, as much as they try and convince themselves otherwise, have found meaning in torturing themselves in the pursuit of the flimsy dream of wealth and social status that they had when they were young (probably because they in turn were told to pursue it).