That desirable duo, success and money, don’t come joined at the hip. As economies improve, it’s time to ask ourselves are we equating success too simply and too completely with acquiring money?

It’s time to see that success is a moral, creative and professional attainment that rises above financial plenty. The two may go hand in hand – but they are not one and the same. Was the late and lauded violinist Yehudi Menuhin a success? Yes. Was he enormously rich? No, his attainment came through dedicated pursuit of the highest standards of his art and then helping others to pursue their musical dreams.

A man, or a woman, could be a rich drug lord, but how many of us would judge that as successful? One could become wealthy via hefty performance bonuses for taking excessive financial risks and then bundling them up and on-selling them to others. We’ve seen plenty of that recently and it led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Global Financial Crisis. Many people around the world suffered, and are still suffering, the effects of the GFC. Surely that’s not success. It looks, tastes and smells much more like irresponsible greed.

I’m not against making money. We all should have enough for our basic needs and, hopefully a few indulgences. (Though sadly, huge numbers of people, mostly in the developing world, don’t have enough money for basic necessities and are shackled and imprisoned by poverty.)

I’d like to draw attention to a great American I regard as highly successful. He is Andrew Carnegie, well known in the US and around the globe as one of America’s greatest benefactors. A visionary man.

The son of a weaver, Andrew Carnegie was born in a humble cottage in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835 and migrated with his family to Pennsylvania in 1848. He took his first job at 13, working in a cotton mill. His is a well-known rags to riches tale, a remarkable example of hard work, combined with business sagacity and enterprise. As we know, he became enormously wealthy: but that is not the end of his story. Libraries, schools and universities in the US, the UK and around the globe have benefited from his generosity. He has changed countless lives for the better, because Andrew Carnegie had an uplifting moral vision, far above the simple acquisition of money.

In later life, he had time to write and among his thoughts is this: “Man must have an idol and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry! No idol is more debasing than the worship of money! Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character.”

Surely it’s time to re-assess our attitudes to acquiring money. Time to look at social and moral responsibility, those distinguishing marks of civilised humanity. Time to campaign and remind financial moguls that they are not demigods, who deserve grossly inflated rewards. They are human beings and can have feet of clay. Remember Bernie Madoff. Or they can have higher vision and social consciences. Like Andrew Carnegie.

Let’s not simply repeat the mistakes of our very recent history.

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