« When someone achieves greatness in any field – such as the arts, science, politics, or business – that person’s achievements are more important than any of his or her personal faults?” When someone attains greatness in any field – such as the arts, science, politics, or business, should we judge the individual by his or her personal life or by the achievement only? In my opinion, focusing on the achievement is far more important and relevant than on personal faults. Personal mistakes are part of human life, if they have no link with your accomplished work, we should not take them into consideration.
Many great individuals succeed despite some personal flaws or missteps. I will illustrate this statement with several examples of memorable men.
Winston Churchill was a British politician, officer, historian and writer during the 20th century. He served as prime minister twice; he was recognized as one of the greatest wartime leaders of his century and received the Nobel Prize in literature. His weakness was to appreciate alcohol at any time of the day. Nevertheless, the fact that he appreciated alcohol is irrelevant to judge his accomplishments, especially in difficult time of war, in the field of politics.
This statement is available for any field. For example, in the Arts, let’s take the case of Roman Polanski. He achieves greatness as a film director, a producer and a writer. His films received multiples awards and nominations. However, he has a legal history, arrested for sexual abuse case. My point is these personal faults did not reduce his success as a film maker. The Arts will remember Roman Polanski for his cinematic masterpieces such as The Pianist or Chinatown more than for his personal life.
Finally, I agree with Paul Valéry who wrote “Humans differ from what they show and look like by hiding”. This quote emphasizes that vice and errors are proper to humans while achievements distinguish them.