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The Paris Diversion


A pulse-pounding thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The ...
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Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

Created: 01/14/20

Replies: 17

Posted Jan. 14, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3444

Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true, and if so, are there people you can think of who set this example?


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
ABeman

Join Date: 01/14/15

Posts: 78

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I actually thought of Meghan Markle when I read this section. It made me think of a recent article about how she had helped an Instagram fan (back before she had to delete the account) through a mental health crisis. This is just one example of how there are people who don’t step on everyone as they gain success. Could there be more? Sure.


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
kimk

Join Date: 10/16/10

Posts: 889

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

The people that come to mind are Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres, but I think those folks are rare. I feel like most people do tend to throw others under the bus to get ahead.


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
paulagb

Join Date: 08/16/17

Posts: 173

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I think many successful people use other people or damage other people to help themselves. That is not to say that everything they do is destructive or unkind. Sometimes an act identified as “stepping” on someone else is really in the eye of the beholder and the vantage point of the observer. Just because someone believes they have been stepped on doesn’t mean they are correct in their assessment.


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
robertaw

Join Date: 04/20/16

Posts: 83

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

It depends on how you define "success". Does it mean money, power, being a good person? I don't define success as having money or power so I don't think you have to step on others to be successful.


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
juliep

Join Date: 04/07/12

Posts: 250

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

Yes, I think this is true, but you would have to already be a moral, upstanding person who knows the difference between right and wrong and acts accordingly. But there are also times when threats to loved ones causes good people to make bad choices.


Posted Jan. 18, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
terriej

Join Date: 07/28/11

Posts: 422

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I think there are successful people who are altruistic and respect the people beneath them who help make them successful. I also think there are successful people who are only out for themselves. I don't think it's fair to generalize all successful people the same.


Posted Jan. 19, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
deeh

Join Date: 03/03/12

Posts: 239

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I agree with terriej. Altruism is not dead, but the people who are truly altruistic don't make a big fuss about what they do to help others. One shouldn't generalize about successful people.


Posted Jan. 23, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
acstrine

Join Date: 02/06/17

Posts: 438

RE: Hunter thinks to himself,

I really like robertaw's response! What kind of success are we talking about? And when we hear the word success do we think of money and position first?

I believe there are a lot of "successful" people in this world by standards not necessarily appreciated by the news media OR the ideal of what we as a culture believe success to be etc. If someone shares a photo of him/herself or another person doing something for someone less fortunate, comment feeds are filled with statements declaring "it would have been so much better if you hadn't photographed and shared it." Yet, awards programs (Oscars more than Nobel), gossip rags, Insta-influencers are incredibly popular as the masses seem to want to know what is happening in the worlds of "successful" people so we can all keep up with the Kardashians.

Is is even appropriate to consider someone a success if he/she has had to hurt, belittle, or screw over others to get there? If that is what it takes to be "successful", no thanks! I'm happy to be a little failure over here in my happy life!


Posted Jan. 23, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
sharalynnep

Join Date: 12/04/11

Posts: 63

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I agree that it depends on what you mean by success...and just because someone appears to be selfless at the top, i.e. Megan Markle, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres, doesn't mean they haven't stepped on people to get there.


Posted Jan. 23, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
lisaw

Join Date: 01/04/20

Posts: 4

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I suppose it’s possible but highly unlikely in a competitive world. Often ruthlessness along with determination are crucial to success. Stepping on toes is part of the deal.


Posted Jan. 23, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
juliaa

Join Date: 12/03/11

Posts: 276

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I am idealistic enough to believe that altruism is not dead, but sadly, I realize that many people who achieve material success do step on or over others to get there. I like robertlaw's point about how to define success.


Posted Jan. 24, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
marks

Join Date: 02/25/19

Posts: 112

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I like the responses that reference the difficulty of trying to define success and/or the perception of how people attain that success. Perception, both of the person and the decisions made by that person, are often created without access to the full story or the background knowledge to reach an informed conclusion. Even people like Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres have their detractors, but it doesn't mean that they stepped on everyone who was in their way. In my mind, it is like just about every legal show or movie. People rush to judge based on who speaks first and are then (hopefully) forced to rethink their position when they hear the other side. This is the case in education, politics, sports, entertainment, business...


Posted Jan. 25, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dorinned

Join Date: 10/13/14

Posts: 176

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

If you are an optimist, then you definitely believe that there are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else to reach the top of the ladder. I too like robertslaw's definition of success.


Posted Jan. 29, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
pnelson384

Join Date: 05/13/19

Posts: 47

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I believe there are good people and bad people everywhere - in every group of people, in every place, in every society. There are for sure people who are financially successful people who have exhibited great kindness and reaching behind them to pull up others, just as there are people who have found themselves with money and power and their worst selves are on display.

When you are financially successful, you are the same person - with money and power, that person is more likely to be shown publicly.

I also agree with the previous poster that success isn't just money and fame. There are many ways to define success.


Posted Feb. 04, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
cathyoc

Join Date: 04/26/17

Posts: 247

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I want to believe that! I think it goes back to how you measure success. The world is full of successful parents, teachers, health professionals, and others who lead righteousness lives. They may not be on the news or the covers of magazines but they are the backbone of society.


Posted Feb. 05, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
Junebug

Join Date: 01/25/20

Posts: 21

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I believe an altruistic person receives joy from helping others and I don't believe you have to give that up just to be financially successful or at the top of the corporate ladder. I believe some people have a stricter moral code than others. It saddens me when people who are trying to achieve their goals feel the need to step on other people in order to get there.


Posted Feb. 10, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
SKB

Join Date: 10/28/18

Posts: 12

RE: Hunter thinks to himself, "There are plenty of successful people who don't step on everyone else as they climb their ladders." Do you believe this is true?

I think there are successful people who do not step on others to get ahead, but we don’t always hear about them. These days we seem to hear more about how many people were stepped on for those getting ahead. It would be nice to hear more about those who didn’t step on others as they climbed the ladder. I also think that the stepping on can be unintentional and/or unrealized at this time.


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