Today, the most "successful" people in society seem to be the doctors, lawyers, business men, etc. What do all these people have in common? They are wealthy. That is it. How exactly do you measure success though? Why is someone that makes six, maybe seven, figures a year more successful than a person who makes a substantially smaller amount of money? If many of the people in these positions are miserable are they still "successful"?
In my opinion success is actually defined by how happy a person is. Obviously, happiness is not a measurable quality. I am well aware of te fact that my idea of success is much different to that of the average person. Dagny for one, is the person who defines success in terms of how much money a person makes. In her mind, she has led a successful life because she has worked to get to where she is and more importantly worked to get the money that she is making. While to herself she is sucessful, someone like Hugh Akston is not.
When her search for the creator of the engine leads her to him she is astonished at the fact that he requests her offer to work for him; this being before she knows he is Hugh Akston. Upon finding out who he is she is even more astonished. However, I fail to understand why Dagny is so astonished. I honestly believed that she had more to her than money. I thought her life was more centered on emotions than "success". I cannot say for sure that money is a driving force behind Dagny's actions, but I do think it is a great motivator. The only thing holding me back from saying that only money drives her actions was the fact that she asked if Hugh approved of how his students, mainly Francisco, turned out.
- Talia Akerman
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