It seems that using the main character of the Scarface movie, as well as the two (apparent) thugs at the car dealership, as paragons of success is inapt in this case. Scarface was a murderer and a large scale drug dealer. He killed people to make money. He had other people kill people to make money. His actions caused immense harm to many others. He had material success, but was an utter failure as a human being and came to a very unpleasant end in the movie, as most people of his ilk do in real life.

I’d like to think that behaving in an ethical manner can also lead to material success – self-imposed “glass ceiling” or not. Selfishly stomping on others to be “successful” makes life miserable for oneself and those others who have been so stomped.

Educated or not, materially successful or not, dishonest / evil people are usually found out and shunned by others (except those that are so materialistic and uncivilized that they want to imitate dishonest behavior so they too can be “successful”.)

Perhaps a more apt example of success might be someone who attained success for themselves through honest means and who helped others do the same. That’s true success measured on a material level as well as on the levels of humanity and decency.

The Scarface character is not to be admired for being someone who “set his own goals”. Like many felons in real-life prison awaiting a death sentence, he was simply someone who could not organize his life or his own behavior to consider the importance of other people, who also have goals, aspirations and families. Scarface sought to benefit himself by harming others. That’s hardly laudable behavior. It’s the law of the jungle and can make the work environment and life in general, quite unpleasant.

I’d propose someone along the lines of Fred Smith at FedEx as a better example. He is an honest leader who built a $35 billion a year business from scratch, who created a well-documented family – friendly work culture for the 300,000 plus FedEx employees and a business offering that is widely regarded as without peer in it’s category. Most FedEx customers LOVE FedEx because the company routinely delivers what it promises.

That’s true success – both material and human. Fred is quite wealthy as a result – and deservedly so.