Persevering to achieve success.

Topper Harley wrote: »

I think the problem people have with you is that your tone is not very endearing and you can be a bit condescending towards others.

You could simply say that you worked hard, did well in college, got a good job and are happily married but instead you boasted about how greatly successful you are and how you have everything, in a thread about a man's long hard struggle to what some would see as moderate success but that is enormous to that person.

Not that I have a problem with your success, it sounds quite interesting and I wish you further success in the future.

I guess you don't make it to the top by making friends.

Do ya know what though, success is all relative.

I could rattle off a list of achievements that could sound exceptional to someone else, but to me, has sort of been the result of luck or privilege or a combination of both. Did well at school, good degree, great job in a tough industry, lived in various different countries, the odd sporting or educational accolade as a kid etc etc.

The things that I'd be most proud of though would be the personal struggles that I overcame, that many other people wouldn't relate to or that I simply wouldn't bring up in conversation because they'd provoke awkwardness or discomfort or a sort of 'blank' response in other people.

I went through an eating disorder as a teenager and I've dealt with residual body image issues ever since. Quite often getting through a day without obsessing or beating myself up or under-eating or over-eating is ten times the achievement that getting a high-flying job could ever be, because academia and career success has come quite easily to me by comparison.

Equally I have a friend who writes and stages plays at various festivals in his spare time, pens the most extraordinarily smart and humorous scripts that he's had great success with in the TV industry. He really has a creativity that most people can hardly fathom, but sometimes for him getting out of bed and deciding not to end it all is the very definition of success and perseverance and is unparalleled than any other accomplishment because he suffers with depression.

So I don't tend to judge others on whatever list of 'accomplishments' they may or may not seem to have. Some things come easily to people; not so easily to others. Sometimes it's the very simplest things that most other people take for granted - like feeding yourself, or getting out of bed - that can be the accomplishment of a lifetime to someone else.

Topper Harley wrote: »

I think the problem people have with you is that your tone is not very endearing and you can be a bit condescending towards others.

You could simply say that you worked hard, did well in college, got a good job and are happily married but instead you boasted about how greatly successful you are and how you have everything, in a thread about a man's long hard struggle to what some would see as moderate success but that is enormous to that person.

Not that I have a problem with your success, it sounds quite interesting and I wish you further success in the future.

A bit condescending would be putting it mildly, previous posts include:

I'm not hugely in favour of inequality myself. My drive to work in the 5-Series wouldn't be made better by the sight of shoeless plebs begging at street corners.

I regret to say I was somewhat of a bully to a rather dim lad I went to school with back in the day. Impeccably impersonating his terrible pronounciation in German class etc. Although, in my defence, everyone else laughed along with me, including our teacher and his own cousin.

He dropped out after the Junior Cert, I left the village immediately after school for university and promptly emigrated after that, so I had not seen him for over ten years before I ran into him one Stephen's Night a few years ago.

Graciously he forgave me immediately after I had apologised and bought him a pint. I also found out he worked in an Esso service station near my parents' house so I always make sure to pay him a visit and tip him generously for washing the car or checking the tyre pressure. Even though I am almost always driving a rented car.

It's a small price to pay to compensate for my past transgressions, for putting a little smile on his face and to cheer him up for not being able to escape our little town like I did. I hope he is doing well.

I live in Germany but I travel back to Ireland fairly often. Though there are much more Plus Size Padlings in Ireland than you'd see on the continent, it's not as anywhere near as bad as the adults.

I was home for Christmas last winter and ran into some of the ”people” I went to school with for the first time in the best part of a decade. It's incredible to see how quickly they've let themselves go, and they're barely in their 30s: big bulbous bloodshot eyes, massive bellies hanging over their jeans barely contained in their Penney's shirts, huge pink balding heads with high blood pressure.

They all looked like raging Elmer Fudds. Most of them had stopped getting regular exercise since drinking took over their desire to play Gaelic football back in their early 20s but, really, it was all diet to blame. Supermacs twice or three times a week, fried breakfast every morning and a feed of drink all weekend. One morbidly obese girl I went to school with spends her weekends drinking TWO boxes of Tesco red wine (both nights) and listening to best of the 80s playlists instead of mixing with people, dancing, cycling etc. I had to tell her to sort her life out in front of everyone for her own good.

Absolutely unrepresentative of the greater Irish population.

Not even close.

As a few people have pointed out, its definitely heavily skewed to the younger male, lower income, worker-drone IT class.

Few outliers obviously, but in the main your average boards user is Male, Atheist (and will point this out at all opportunities), left-wing, socially stunted, late 20s to early 30s, lower-middle to low income, interested in video games/comics/quirky sub-culture etc. , probabaly has bad facial hair and tattoos.

Looking through some of the comments I'm going back to the troll theory.

People can spout all they like about Irish begrudgery, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of modesty.

Aongus Von Bismarck gets a lot of hate in pretty much every thread he posts in but I think he's the perfect antagonist for boards. He's either a master troll or a sociopathic bond type villain.

Given his penchant for men's fashion, good red wine and facial care I'm guessing the latter. In my mind he looks and speaks like Hans from die hard

My name is URL wrote: »

Good man. You ignore what you want to ignore. I'll continue to point out obvious bull**** when I see it.

If what I say on an internet forum perplexes you then your wits are probably not up to scratch for someone that works on 'the cutting edge of finance' in Germany..

You absolute clown.. Someone in that thread asked if you were a barber

I wouldn't even trust you to hold a razor without freaking out and throwing a wobbler

So is it finance, hairdressing or in a circus? This is getting complicated.

Topper Harley wrote: »

No, he's a professional and Ireland's highest ranking male player at that.

Given his career earnings (€139,754) and the number of years he's been playing professionally (5), he's been able to make a living, roughly €28,000/year.

Nothing to be sneezed at for doing something you like and FA else

The Peanut wrote: »

You don't think he has persevered?

Still don't see perserverance The Peanut, I associate that word with hardship etc.

Dedicated perhaps, yes.

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I grew up on a rural farm in the west of Ireland. Our house was comfortable but far from affluent.

I persevered through college, achieving very highly in all exams. I eventually went on to do a post-graduate degree in the UK's top university. I now have a very highly paid job working in wealth management in Germany. I have a beautiful German partner and want for absolutely nothing.

I've come a long way from picking stones in the West.

Honest question- would you line to be living in the west of ireland countryside again?