Why did the Immense Talents End Tragically?

Amid many of us are talking about New York, in this last week preAc program in NY, allow me to write something not related to NY. This is actually only my personal thought. Yesterday I was quite shocked when knew that Robin Williams died at 63. I was shocked by his died, but got more shocked with the way his death : apparent suicide. Why?

I am not a huge fan of Robin Williams, but at least I watched some of his movies like Jumanji, Mrs. Doubtfire and Night at Museum, and I know that he is a great talent. This reminds me to two influential singers that gives immense inspiration to my life. I believe that there is a lot of talented singers in the US, but I believe there are only few of them who really talented, no lip-sync, no background dancers, no naked, no erotic dance, and their live performance even better than recorded versions. No offense. And yes, they both died as a drug abuser, tragically, in the room, another one in the bathroom. 

Michael Jackson is the history in the US music industry. His ability in creating rich, beautiful, unique, combined with his feminine but rocky voice and incomparable moonwalk dance bring him to the A-list artist. He was the most awarded artist of all time with 23 Guinness World Records, 40 Billboard Awards, 13 Grammys and 26 Music Awards. But did he happy with his life? during his life he has a lot of money, but no freedom. He pushed himself to much to jump to the top by himself until he started abusing prescription to make him sleep and relieve. He took pills every time he got stress. In his last of his life, he even must struggle to gather some dollars to pay his utilities. How can be the once-most-famous singer with the highest paid rate finally dead in his room by overdose. Alone.  

Two years later, another great singer, Whitney Houston, the only singer with 7 consecutive billboard hits who famous by her thick high 5 octave tone voice, found dead in her bathroom because of overdose heart attack. Houston is the most awarded female artist with more than 600 awards in her life. She can sing Gospel, Soul, Pop and R&B that always followed by her platinum selling rate. Did she happy with her life? during her life she has a lot of money, but no freedom. She pushed herself too much until she even couldn't hit her tone. Her addiction to drugs and cigarettes drag her to death in a very early age. She stressed by her follower who always took her picture as if he was a game. Every time she got stress, she was back to pills. How can be the once-most famous singer with the highest paid rate finally dead in a hotel’s bathroom by overdose. Alone.

So why the immense talents end tragically?

Perhaps the theory of money is able to explain it. Immense talent is an extremely valuable resource for one person that can generate welfare (say it: money) so much. With money they can buy anything they are willing to buy. But another important thing is, human’s willingness to buy has a limit. That is why the use of money is an asymptotic parabolic function, it starts increasing at the beginning but when it reaches its top point, it will decrease slowly, because human will realise that at the peak point of this money function, they are still not able to get satisfaction. That is why the multibillionaires such as BillGates finally ‘trash’ their money and treasures in charity, in helping others, because he doesn't even know what he wants next. Human finally realise that what they’re looking for is not only about buying something, it is not only about money. Human always ask more and more money without knowing what they're going to do next with their money. When this happens, without good money management, money will flow to illogical usage, in case above, to drugs. In that case, they might think they are strong enough since their money will be able to cover them through medication or insurance. This is the condition when money manipulates rationality to be irrational. Well, maybe money is not only the root cause of this problem. But at least, it contributes one portion to the tragedy. 

Then, if money actually doesn't make human happy, what things actually Michael and Whitney want to get in their life?

There is an interesting statement to close this perspective from Oprah Winfrey when she gave her commencement in Stanford graduate in 2008.

“ I love money. Money is good for buying things. But having a lot of money doesn't automatiacally make you a successful person. What we really want in this life is not only about money. What we really want is MONEY and MEANING. We want our work and our life to be meaningful”