Fame, Fortune, and Power

It can be argued that once basic survival needs have been met all human beings in modern civilization have the selfish urge to achieve one or more of the goals in the title of this article. Among the three I’d also argue that FORTUNE ranks first among equals. Wealth is easily transferrable, scalable, and can be adapted for varied uses. One can even purchase POWER or FAME with WEALTH directly while the reverse path is more indirect and less obvious. With wealth or power, one can also directly delegate unpleasant tasks for others (i.e. subordinates or employees) to do the task for you. On the other hand, FAME is far more ethereal and fleeting. It is more difficult to use FAME directly to get something done. For one thing, fame is not transferable. Thus, you must persuade others rather than purchase or command others. Consider one example. In life, we all have necessary but mundane tasks to do every day.  As an academic, we are often asked to evaluate a candidate and/or write reference letters for friends and mere acquaintances. Because of your fame, people think you should be asked to do such tasks since your opinion will carry more weight. But this is an obligation rather than productive effort. As an academic, you do not have subordinates that can and qualified to do such task for you, especially at my advanced age. It can become a burden that you must personally do. And if you are honest, the reference you write can be counter productive for the candidate – something the candidate asking for such reference letter don’t often realize because of your fame – a real dilemma. But I am not complaining. I have always said “if your life is 80% perfect, you need the other 20% to keep you in perspective ” and as the advertising slogan says “Getting there is all the fun”.