ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses "getting ahead" as currently referring to advancement in an organizational context, as opposed to previously referring to being a successful independent entrepreneur. Thus, current ideology supports striving for promotion in the organizational career. The idea of the successful individual was linked with the liberal ideology of expanding capitalism. The entrepreneurial pattern of success and its inspirational ideology rested upon an economy of much small proprietorship. Under a centralized enterprise system, the pattern of success becomes a pattern of the climb within and between prearranged hierarchies. The entrepreneurial and white-collar ways of success, although emerging in historical sequence, are not clear-cut phases through which American aspiration and endeavor have passed. They now co-exist, and each has varying relevance in different economic areas and phases of the economic cycle. The heraldry of American success has been the greenback; even when inspirational writers are most inspirational, the big money is always there.
