Friday, April 10, 2026
Success can sweep you off your feet. Michael Jackson is a tragic example of someone who reached heights that eventually fell with a heavy thud. We are enamored by our own triumphs and by those who are triumphant—Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, or Steve Jobs.
But sometimes, the mighty fall hard. We never really see who these people are, do we? We see their brands, their statuses, and their personas, but the limelight obscures the human. They are swept out to sea by the riptide of their own doing.
Success brings you far from the shore. Matthew Perry spoke of this; six months after Friends blew up, he had the mansion, the cars, and the fans, yet emptiness grew. He became more successful as that emptiness overwhelmed him. Lost at sea. Lost in success.
Being “in the limelight” means being the center of public interest. In nineteenth-century theater, limelight was created by heating a cylinder of calcium oxide with an oxyhydrogen flame, producing an intense white light. Imagine everyone looking at you—commenting, pointing, critiquing, and prying. Under that kind of intense scrutiny, would you lose your footing?
I’ve been swept out by my own success. But if you ever touch the Light, and you become the shore upon which it stands, you’re bound to be brought to the limelight, but the Lighthouse is where you live firmly. Never lose touch with the guiding principle. Keep it real.
Shore it up. Stay grounded. The limelight is strong and can easily become a riptide, pulling the unprepared into the superficial. But the Light is deeper afoot, guiding ships back to the safety of the harbor from which they really cannot drift or be carried “out” by their own doing. Although success can seem to get the best of you, the best of you cannot be gotten by a trick it seems to have forgotten.