When everyone is rewarded with millions or billions of dollars for running companies into the ground (Enron, MCI/WorldCom, Bear Stearns, shoveling all that subprime mortgage shit into investment markets and tanking the economy, etc.), everyone is successful. CEOs are almost entirely insulated from the consequences of their actions, so it's impossible to state with a straight face that they're "successful." Gail McGovern has single-handedly destroyed the Red Cross, yet continues to reward herself richly.