If your family ate foie gras from golden plates, people would hate you, too. Success and approval are two different things. Someone may think that you are successful, but using that success in an irresponsible manner.
I think it is just OPs wording that got me arguing this point: "a man's success in life". Not a man's success in gaining material wealth. The argument I was trying to make (rather poorly it seems) is that people don't normally measure life success solely by the number in your bank account when you die, there are other measures as well.