Forget exulting in someone else’s success, the great American pastime is lamenting that you got screwed, that someone else has got your job, your girl, your plaudits, everything you deserve.

It’s hard to rise above in our country, because the minions are lined up to tear you down.

Sure, there are some who do it for sport, primarily those who were bullied in high school and are now taking it out on others. But mostly we find the great unwashed and in most cases undeserving tearing down the looks, talent and good fortune of those who have broken through.

Write about someone who’s made it and you’re gonna get feedback that they suck. And it’s driven by the small cancer inside that exclaims WHY WASN’T IT ME!

No one wants to admit they’re a failure, undeserving, never mind unqualified. They see the world as one of opportunities they were not fortunate enough to get.

Now I’m not talking about the disadvantaged, those who grew up without parents, in poverty. But if you read the pleadings of these people you’d think they were brought up in shacks, with outhouses, and they can’t afford pizza, never mind a new car.

Yes, for all the boasting rappers most Americans, especially artists, believe by demonstrating what they have not got, they will get what they deserve.

Actually, this is true, they get nothing.

Not everybody on top is a jerk. And there’s a reason most of them made it, one that you don’t want to know, because then that will illustrate…you’re just not good enough.

Do you know how to network?

Do you know how to kiss ass?

Are you smart enough to not only pick up on the street cues, but the business ones?

Can you read music?

Do you have a great voice?

Are you fun to hang around with?

Do you do others favors?

Are you willing to suffer without complaining?

Do you go to sleep not repeating affirmations of your deserving success, but planning a route thereto?

When the going gets rough, do you punt or keep going?

Then why do you think you deserve success when the others don’t?

Oh, they had a rich father. Oh, the program director was out of town the day you went to the station. You’ve got tons of excuses and very little perspective, instead of looking inside you keep complaining that SOMEONE TOOK YOUR JOB!

Now maybe Asians have got your manufacturing gig, but those are faceless jobs. The ones that require personality and pluck…did you ever consider the fact that your bitching that someone else is less deserving than you is what is holding you back?

The guy with the hit record? He didn’t write it, they auto-tuned it, you could go in and whip out your composition and go straight to number one, only your song is not good and you don’t know how to get yourself into the place where you can take advantage.

You’re tweeting all day but some other critic with worthless opinions is getting all the ink. Ever cross your mind that your sour personality is what’s holding you back?

And these people all have friends just like them, who reinforce their opinions. Ever notice that losers hang together? And that the winners want nothing to do with them?

It’s hard to break away from your group, to lose weight when everybody’s fat, to stop smoking when everybody’s taking a drag. Yup, they’ve done studies on this, like-minded people hang together.

To emerge victorious in the war of art, you’re gonna have to leave your friends behind, because they’re not gonna like your attitude, they’re gonna complain you’ve changed when the truth is they refuse to.

If you don’t make the people around you feel good, if you can’t do something for them that they can’t do for themselves, if you’re not supremely talented…

You’re not gonna make it.

And this condition has always existed, but with the Internet it’s been amplified. Everyone’s fighting for attention and when they don’t get it they take it as a personal affront.

Do you really want to be a musician? Do you really want to be famous? Do you really want to get up at 6 AM to do endless repetitive interviews with people who know nothing about you?

Then maybe you’re not cut out for this work.

Are you willing to be nice to people you dislike? Connivers out to screw you who are necessary to your success?

Why does everybody just see the tip of the iceberg and conclude they deserve to be there?

Would you sit at home and surf WebMD and believe you’re ready for surgery?

Then why do you think you deserve someone else’s stardom?

And that’s why the successful want so little to do with you complaining wannabes. You’re not friends, but vultures, trying to drag them down into the hole you’re in.

That’s the number one e-mail I get. The act I’m writing about sucks and the person complaining could do it better.

And they oftentimes include a link. And when I click through I wonder if they’re e-mailing from a mental institution, because their composition is so far from the mark, it’s laughable.

Very few make it.

Luck is a tiny component of success.

Everyone’s got excuses for failing.

Try coming up with the reasons for your success, what you’re not doing that will help you, other than sending messages imploring others to help you climb the ladder whilst you bitch that the star on stage HAS TAKEN YOUR SPOT!