Allow me to start with a question: Do you correlate success with virtue? In other words, when you see a person with a nice home in the suburbs do think that is probably a person of good character? Similarly, when you see a rough looking person, do you presume the person has bad character?
This is not a post about condemning stereotypes. I’m also not going to claim right or wrong answers here. Some of the underlying issues due have empirical bases, but that is tangential. The answers to these questions do give you an idea of your outlook on life though. For those holding the correlation positively, sports have provided an interesting window over the years. Sports were in fact the area where I first let the positive correlation go.
Tiger Woods is a good place to start here. The shock and horror that he was – there is no compelling reason to use the past tense here but I will anyway – a womanizer rang out as the revelations came forth. This past Sunday was supposed to be his day of redemption, although any other Sunday would have done to fit the narrative. Michael Vick of course was redeemed last season by winning and actually bothering to care about his work. What winning on a football field has to do with felony redemption escapes me. Apparently people needed permission to cheer for Vick and Woods.
When high level athletes are placed under the microscope, we find they are for the most part self absorbed jerks. Even the exceptions tend to be graded on a curve, like the NBA player who manages to have a career without an illegitimate child popping up. Rather than playing by the rules, we find they excepted from most of them. I still recall the story of one future Heisman trophy winner announcing to those around him in the lecture hall that this would be the first and last day they would see him in class. We have reports that a Heisman winner was found in possession of stolen property, turned in work that wasn’t his own, and was found to have solicited a 6-figure reimbursement for playing football his senior season. Even ignoring criminality and strict immorality, one finds that successful athletes must spend an inordinate amount of time on training and preparation that necessarily they will place a greater importance on themselves than others.
At some point the question arises, does this transfer over to the non-sports world? Personally, I came to the conclusion a few years ago that this indeed was the case. Contra Sullivan, I no longer believe that when I see a successful person I’m looking at a person with good character and industry. I’m curious on your thoughts.
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