wealth does not equal success. In this society (america) we've got a serious problem with dual income families. They want all the materialistic possesions (48" color lcd tv, Escalade, house too big for them, etc) and debt up to their eyeballs.
Success is measured by personal happiness. I am lucky enough to be blessed with a wife who loves me dearly, and a little monkey boy who is, albeit extremely precocious, an all around good kid for being 3. To me, that is success. House overhead, food in tummy, two car garage with two paid for cars in it, vacations when possible, but materialistically I fail to see the use for a 40k SUV that gets 15 mpg and never sees the dirt. To me, that smacks of a status symbol, and that is in turned followed by the fact that people want them to notice how succesful they are. Insecurity, in my book.
Success is rated by how your kids turn out. By being able to spend quality time with the wife and kid, not by what your peers think of you. The only people whose respect I need to have are all located under the same roof as me, and we do just fine.
So no, I don't think that wealth == success, or vice versa. To me, that is a dangerously materialistic view, one that shamou and I have gone round and round on, eventually settling on the fact that we agree to disagree.
Of course, he's already got the success by all the other definitions I've made, so he is more than welcome to pursue the latest Ronco Splattermatic Salad Shooter. He's set to go.