[bluetomcat]

The implicit definition of "success" from the article is probably navigating through the capitalist value system established by the market, and making a profit. It also implies that this "market-based" monetary value system is fair. There are much more complex and incomprehensible underlying social interactions that create this value system as it is. Your output as an individual is hardly ever proportional to success in that sense.

A successful CEO has climbed the corporate ladder and social hierarchy, and now their decisions are a force multiplier that mutates the values in that system. A busy carpenter is stuck doing chairs and desks, and the values of chairs and desks are dependent on everything else in the economy.

[stavros]

And yet I've met CEOs who keep saying how they want to quit and become carpenters.