A tragic irony of life is that we so often achieve success or financial independence after the chief reason for which we sought it has passed away.

Glasgow’s sentence frames “success” and “financial independence” as goals pursued not for their own sake but as instruments meant to secure something more intimate—love, family stability, youth, health, or a particular person’s approval. The “tragic irony” is temporal: the rewards arrive after the motivating need has vanished, exposing how easily ambition can be out of sync with life’s fragile timetable. The line critiques a culture that postpones living until after achievement, and it also suggests a psychological misrecognition—mistaking money or status for the deeper human ends they are supposed to serve. Its sting lies in the implication that some losses cannot be compensated by later prosperity.