"It is...rather an over-simplified idea that 'to succeed' is to bear fruit, and therefore to give proof of the fact that psychologically and morally you are not a failure. This is a very old illusion, already denounced by Socrates: mistaking external success, which depends on a great many ingredients extraneous to ethical life -- good connections, cleverness, good luck, ruthlessness, and so forth -- for genuine 'success' in the metaphysical sense...which...consists in having, as Socrates said, a 'good and beautiful soul'."