Mandela is making a distinction that often gets missed: he's not dismissing money's usefulness, but rather identifying autonomy as the actual engine of achievement. The difference matters because it shifts focus from chasing wealth to chasing the conditions that allow you to work—which is precisely what someone emerging from prison, or from any system of constraint, would understand viscerally. When a single parent finally finds childcare that lets them take on better work, or when an artist stops a draining job to pursue their craft, they're not suddenly richer, but they've gained the one thing Mandela valued most. Success, in his view, follows from the space to act on your own terms.