We might add that the heresy of success among businesspersons is closely akin to the cult of personality and creativity among artists and the intelligentsia. Success, as opposed to faith, is the reassurance of things seen. Success is the ethic of the self-made person, the confirmation of the one who earns a reputation. But when life is measured by accomplishments, death appears especially foreboding. Death does not fit into a mind-set bent on success.
Death is acceptable only when one views life as a gift, and a limited one at that.
For the deepest life, the life of Christ, is essentially unearned. It is the life of grace, not accomplishments. If it were earned, it would not be grace. St. Paul did not earn his living as a tentmaker out of an anxiety to prove his self-worth, but only so that he did not burden his fellow Christians. Christ promises his followers life, but not the kind of life that is earned.