Does our society hate success??

I was reading through some comments of the gapingvoid blog and suddenly a thought struck me. Microsoft has been kicked around and bad mouthed all over the world especially in the blogger space. If you read the articles about it when it started, people couldn't stop praising Bill Gates,Paul Allen and their team for doing whatever they did with Microsoft. As it grew bigger and bigger the plaudits started coming down and the brickbats started increasing. So the thought was ,does this world hate success?

This thought didn't come from a just this example of Microsoft. You can see for yourself there are umpteen companies which as start ups and during their initial fame periods were considered path breaking,ingenious and world changing.But as they became bigger and more powerful the resentments against them kept on increasing. Take Google and Apple for example. Google could do no wrong. Larry and Sergey were demi gods( Still are to millions i assume). But as soon as Google started expanding the critics (from the experts to the roadside hawker) started finding all sorts of faults with it. Why does it have to buy You Tube....Orkut,Adsense and all other tools will make Google big brother,its strategy is no strategy at all etc etc etc. I'm not taking some kind of moral high ground here.I too have questioned Google's future plans. Same with Apple and Steve Jobs. Ditto with GM and Ford.The list goes on.

I'm not trying to say that criticizing is wrong but what we see is that we who love the companies when they start off slowly start having reservations which turn into resentments as soon as they become bigger and successful. Of course not every step these companies take is right but we begin to see only the bad things and as we all know ,now with the power of the Internet bad news spreads like lightening. Soon everyone is focusing on all the small mistakes the companies have made. They dig deep into the history and find faults at every nook and corner. Even from the times when they loved the companies.

Don't look at me like im talking some strange alien language and you are not one of those people.You know what im talking about, deep down.

So i ask this question to myself again. Does our society hate success.Is that why we always rooting for the underdogs?? Root for Microsoft when IBM was big. Root for Google when Microsoft is big. Root for Toyota when GM is big. Your getting the point.

Sure we all know there some serious mistakes committed by companies. Environmental pollution,child labour etc etc. But not all the companies make such big mistakes to be be turned into such open, free for all big targets for everyone and anyone to shoot at.

I also think that this is syndrome is not just limited to business.Take sport for example. We rooted for Alonso when Schumi was unbeatable.For Nadal just to see Federer lose a game.

Bill Gates is made out to be devil incarnated himself,inspite of being the biggest philanthropist on the planet. Richard Branson is looked upon as the playboy of business,inspite of coming with the most amazing businesses. Steve Jobs is considered arrongance personified.

These things then make me ask the following questions that i seek from myself and all those who can give me an answer

1. Does the society resent(if not hate) success in some weird psychological way
2. If it does, Why so? is it right or wrong?
3. Whats the way to keep on being successful and keeping resentments to a minimum.



PS: Do comment after you read. I'd like to see all possible perspectives .Thanks