Affluent people who have achieved great success

"Calm waters never made tough sailors," goes an apt quotation. Indeed, it is a fact that in order for one to garner success in life, one must brave difficulties, adversities and obstacles. If the going is all smooth and hunky-dory and there is nothing to challenge one, one will find that one needn't necessarily rise to the occasion and fight vociferously giving one's endeavour full effort.

Likewise, there are scores of men and women who have gone against all odds due to arduous and trying circumstances. However, they have valiantly given it their best shot and refused to give up or give in but steadfastly clung to their sense of purpose. Inventors such as Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Faraday, Humphrey Davy and Benjamin Franklin have all emerged from poverty-stricken families with little means to even get educated significantly. Yet, they rose to the occasion and have discovered and invented some of the most indispensable inventions that have made life for the modern man much more comfortable. They all possessed the proverbial "fire in the belly" to realise and fructify their dreams.

Can one, therefore, deduce that challenging circumstances of lack of funds alone are a sine qua non to achieve success? Would well-off affluent individuals not be goaded on to achieve success because they already have sufficient means and a wealthy lifestyle? Since wealthy individuals have probably never experienced hunger, sickness or poverty, can one deduce they may not possess the requisite burning drive to garner success?

It's a revelation of sorts that not all affluent individuals are snugly complacent. On the other hand, there are even among the affluent individuals some who are highly motivated and who have made valuable incisive contributions to humanity. For example, the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the son of a millionaire, the late Moti Lal Nehru. Though Jawaharlal was wealthy, he did not rest on his laurels nor did he lead a lethargic, laid-back life but instead used his extraordinary talents for the good of the country. He became a fearless freedom fighter, a talented Prime Minister and a writer par excellence with a lively writing style. The books he wrote are considered masterpieces from which people draw inspiration and succour even to this day.

Winston Churchill is another sterling example of a versatile well-to-do leader. Though he was from a noble family, he garnered enormous clout and prestige as a British Prime Minister for two terms. In addition, he was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, as his book "Memoirs of the Second World War" is considered a work extraordinaire, it warning the world of the encroachment of the evil genius dictator, Adolf Hitler, which triggered off the Second World War.

Francis Bacon, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and Leo Tolstoy are other examples of those individuals who hailed from wealthy families but who didn't complacently rest on their achievements but achieved tremendous success.