The price of success can be high. Parents who neglect their families may willingly pay it, but their spouses and children might pay as well. Karl Marx is a famous example, a man who saw most of his children die. Of course, there is more than one way to tell that story.

Paul Gauguin, the post-impressionist painter, had an exotic childhood followed by an ordinary career as a stockbroker. He took up painting in his spare time and it consumed him. After eleven successful years in the markets he moved to Denmark, then Martinique, and finally to the South Seas. He died alone, at 54, of a morphine overdose, possibly a heart attack, and weakened by alcohol abuse.

People who connive, lie, or steal can find temporary success, but often find disgrace, and occasionally jail time. Bernie Madoff spent many years as a wealthy man. Now his trove has been sold, his wife lives in poverty, and one of his sons is a suicide.

Those people who make marriages that are merely strategic alliances give up the opportunity to marry for love. That could be what has happened to some of the politicians and businessmen caught in sex scandals or serial marriages.

Sometimes the price of success is willingly paid. An artist’s poverty is almost universally admired, assuming he or she finds success. An artist who never shows or a writer with no sales is comic, but usually not to himself.

Idealists who dedicate themselves to a cause are acclaimed as the world’s most selfless heroes, when they are not vilified. Gandhi, Che, Mandela, Mother Jones, and Maude Gonne are admired for their dedication, if not for their causes.

The withdrawn life of a nun or hermit brings spiritual success. Ascetics have written of spiritual success throughout history, and acolytes have followed them, at least for a time. Theirs is a paradoxical kind of success, achieved by resigning all hopes of it.

The ridiculous work hours of a businessperson or entrepreneur are spent happily working toward a worthwhile goal. At the end of it, a dedicated person may become Mark Zuckerberg, or the man who founded webvan.

The point is that success is not free, and it is not a certainty. People do have to give up something for what they get in life.  If success is an overwhelming goal, something will be neglected. It’s a gamble.

Since success cannot be assured, the trip must be as valuable as the destination. Artists must live for art, and entrepreneurs must live for their form of creativity. At the same time, no one should be slighted for someone else’s goal.

Certainly success has a price, and continuing failure has daily costs as well. Everyone is guessing whether their forty years in the wilderness will be worth it.