Column Chronicles: Successful people pine about the past

Successful people pine about the past

Frank Cotolo
February 26, 2015

You would be surprised at how many notably successful people regret things they have done, things that they realize late in their lives. Though they are gifted with longevity and more importantly wealth, they question the price they paid to be able to afford the prices they pay for material goods.

"I wish I had taken better care of myself," said an aging Wilton Westerbury Cotch, multi-millionaire. "I have had a cough since I was twenty-five and I ignored it. Today I am eighty and I still spit up phlegm. Why didn't I take care of this earlier?"

Mrs. Betsy Graphpaper, heir to Bernard Graphpaper, whose invention was named after him, recalls her late husband's last words.

"He looked around the room and said, 'Is this my room?' and we all hoped he had more to say because those are very lame last words for someone great. But after a long silence he said, 'I am so sorry I did not listen to my loved ones more closely, or at all for that matter.' He left us with such regret, especially since we told him all the things we wanted and he never got them for us because he wasn't listening."

Other great men have said that they wish they had surrounded themselves with great people. Ego often gets in the way of companionship with others of equal intelligence or girth, suggested one billionaire that did not want to be identified with the statement for fear that he would not need cufflinks any longer.

Another successful person, George Z. Macaroni, whose family provided Italians with food for centuries, was saddened when he blew out the candles of his birthday cake, served to him on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

"Why I sit here in such wrinkles is one thing," he said, gasping for breath after attempting to blow out every candle unsuccessfully, "but to be this old and not strong enough to lift all of the money I have made, even in large bills, reminds me that I should have shared some of it to those more needy. From what I have been led to believe, there are many needy people in this world. I am not talking about just those in blatant poverty, getting meals from what fortunate people have tossed into a dumpster, I mean those who used money to find cures for diseases and automobile airbags that worked. I have lived a century and it pains me to go to the bathroom, sure, but more than that it irks me to think that a few thousand dollars here and there could have kept a family eating or a family clothed or a family nourished by eating another family's clothes."

The lesson to learn here is to be alert and awake about mankind when you are becoming successful. Don't live to regret the things in life that could not be purchased by your material gains. If you are currently doing well and attaining success, then, be sure to send me a check for a lot of money soon so I can help you feel happy when you grow older.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.