"I Want the Money, Money and the Cars, Cars and the Clothes... the Hoes..."

They say that behind every successful man is a good woman... it seems to me that behind every successful man is a unfulfilled, uncared for woman along with a bunch of other female "playthings" and some illegitimate kids...

This post stems from a movie I watched this weekend, The Distinguished Gentleman with Eddie Murphy... for those who haven't seen it, Eddie Murphy stars as a conman who becomes a con(gress)man on "name recognition" only for the monetary aspects of the job but soon develops a conscience, falls in love, etc. etc. He's not the person I'm most concerned with... it was some of the congressmen who were just on some straight (legal) kingpin shit with how much money they were making from lobbyists and the like... dudes were smashing their secretaries... buying people off... the corruption was straight seeping through their pores it was so crazy... and this is the type of thing that scares me...

While I certainly am no moral compass for ANYONE to follow, I think for the most part I'm a good dude... but in the grand realm of things, I'm not successful yet... I'm weeks away from graduation and that is only the start of my grand list of accomplishments that I have left before me on my journey through life... not to gas myself up, but I'm too smart and too talented to live a life of mediocrity... but this is what worries me: can a man be successful but still maintain his morality? Back in the days when I did go to church, I used to think the strangest statement was "it's hard for a rich man to get into heaven"... it just didn't make any sense to me because at the time I felt that a rich man was more blessed than anyone and probably prayed and thanked God for what he had more than anybody else (I was a naive little boy, I'll tell you that much...) As I've gotten older, I think it's fair to say that the more successful you are, the harder it is to maintain a sense of morals...

As much as it pains me to say, women corrupt successful men... not women in general, but certain women (we and they know who they are) and that's not to say that a man simply can't resist the charms of a woman... but I think it lies in this simple statement: men don't get called beautiful... I mean think about it... from the time a girl is an infant until she dies, she's called beautiful (or at least some crude term of attractiveness)... there isn't a woman I know who doesn't get game spit to her at least five times a day, my girlfriend included, that backs up this statement...

Men, however, don't get dealt this luxury... in fact, it's quite the opposite... dealing with rejection is embedded in a man's psyche so much that it's almost expected to be rejected by the majority of the women we try to get at... the catch-22 here is it's human nature to feel wanted and accepted so most often, men have to judge by another gauge: the women we can bed... as bad as it sounds, I think it's the truth... but I think this is also where the problem lies... if you're a guy who's been overlooked all your life because of various reasons and then all of a sudden, you become successful, you got a little money in your pocket, a nice house, a nice car and then to add to the top of it, you got women coming at you from every direction, it HAS to be difficult to deal with that... and this is what scares me more than anything... I mean, don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of women in the past 24 years but being successful can ONLY add to the appeal I already have...

I mean, I've never been a cheater (I've been DAMMMMN close at times) but it's only because I tend to keep away from situations that would result in me doing so... and in college, that's not hard... don't get drunk at parties where drunk, uninhibited females will be... don't have chicks in your room after a certain hour (because it's an ugly fact that men--or at least I-- have the worst thoughts after 11 PM)... and generally, stay away from females that you are attracted to and vice versa... however, once you're out in the real world, these lines become a little blurred and it's hard to stay out of a situation where you might be attracted to someone or to avoid a woman who's throwing not-so-subtle hints your way...

So I guess after typing all this, I'm asking for people's point of view... for the men, do you find it hard to maintain your relationship with a higher achieved level of success? Do you often find more and more women coming at you because of that success? How do you deal with it? And for the women, what is it about a successful man that makes women just come at you so hard? I understand the stability factor but is there more to it? Have you ever dealt with a man who became successful and then all of a sudden, he felt you just weren't good enough for him?

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