This is an American con. :) As Alain de Botton says in one of his videos (London School of Life), "In America, you go to a booshop. In the psychology section, you see a 100 books on self-help and success. Right next to them you see a 100 books on coping with depression." That was the gist of it anyway.

The bottome line is that the only person who is successful is the one who is at the top. And everybody sort of knows that...