On The Need For Success Poem by David Welch

You hear to many people now
Look at success like it's a crime,
That anyone who's achieved it
Only got it through acts malign.
That everyone who's made it big
Somehow must be an ‘oppressor, '
That it is all ‘exploitation, '
To dare rise above the lesser.
That's there's something wrong with winning,
It's ‘evil, ' and makes folks feel bac,
I've even heard it called ‘fascist'
By ever-stupid undergrads.
To preserve everyone's feelings,
To win power off jealousy,
We've demonized seeking success,
Lionized mediocracy.
But many who buy into this
Have not realized all its effect,
And it does not take much to see
That people won't like what comes next.

If success becomes demonized,
And brings criticism for all,
Then people will stop seeking it,
This here is the start of the fall.
They'll strop trying to do their best,
Since doing so brings social pain,
By doing that it all declines,
What we have built goes down the drain.
Was it not the search for success
That built up our computer age?
Take that away and it stagnates,
What we have now is where we stay.
Was it not the search for success
That created high yield food crops?
Without that billions would have starved,
How many of us would be lost?
Does not success push the artist
To create what we've never seen?
To write the songs that move our lives,
The beauty that runs in our dreams?
Does not the mother seek success
When trying to raise the child?
If they did not seek such a thing
We'd all be brutish and vile.

I think many of them forget
How precarious all this is,
Civilization only works
If success is what we all give.
If the plumber does not succeed
That we're all wallowing in filth,
If the police do not succeed
Then innocent people are killed.
If the doctor does not succeed
Then all us will probably die young,
If the engineer can't succeed
Then our technology is done.
Success of all these moving parts
Is what keeps the nation alive,
When these things fail, we know what comes:
Society, and people, die.
To teach that success is evil,
That merit and effort are wrong,
Is to tear down civilization,
If you do so it won't be long
Until you're killing your neighbors,
Until all is violence and hate,
Your home will look like Somalia
Or any of the world's failed states.
Success is not just millionaires,
It's not just a win for yourself,
When done right in a rule of law
Your win will help everyone else.
Your successful mechanic's shop
Will help people to move freely,
Your successful power plant
Will save folks from the winter freeze.
Your successful grocery store
Will ensure people are well fed,
And your successful parenting
Will keep children safe in their beds.
You've a duty to seek success,
And to despise all who hate it,
'cause if we do not find success
Then all the world soon goes to sh-t.