A villa in the middle of city, Mercedes parked outside the door, personal servants to carry your shoes and cloths. Everyone aspires such a life of convenience, the greater question comes is if this makes a person weak and incompetent. There are two categories of people that need to be considered, First, a person who started from ground up and developed such a lifestyle cannot be considered weak one. For example Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan after achieving huge success in film industry in the early 1980s and 90s faced a lot of financial troubles in 2000s, rendering him almost bankrupt. If he was a weak person he would have never been able to stage a revival of his career and financial position the way he did in mid 2000s and possibly slipped into depression. Another example is when Steve Jobs after achieving so much success with Apple in early 1980s was suddenly terminated from his own company, his lifestyle was notorious, but it didn’t spoil him into becoming weak and was able to comeback stronger, let alone richer than ever.
Now lets come to other category, the people who inherited such a lifestyle from their parents, there are various instances that wealthy lifestyle developed by their parents was destroyed by their sons and daughters, for instance the case of Rahul Gandhi, son of most powerful lady in India, inheriting the power and riches of his politically affluent family was not able to handle his family’s legacy and lead to the downfall of the family’s position in politics, giving up the power status it once held. A lot of people attributed this to because of his luxury lifestyle which made him weak and incompetent.
Then there are other examples that beg to differ to this theory. Mukesh Ambani, inheriting India’s then richest man Dhirubhai Ambani’s fortune and company, developed it further, expanding overseas, developing it into a global brand and a leader in several industries. Stories like these disprove the theory of luxury making people incompetent.
I believe it all comes down to parenting and the environment one develops in. Even if Mukesh Ambani lived in best of houses and best of facilities, his parents kept him down to earth, disciplined and enabled him to run the company. This idea of enablement is the key for a person to become competent, strong and independent. The idea doesn’t discriminate between the rich and poor, if one is smart enough he can achieve everything and still remain competent throughout his life.