Willy and individual opportunity

Willy thinks that to be successful in life you, all you need is to be well liked. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or what school you went to, you can do whatever you want as long as people like you.
This is most obvious is the way that he handles Biff as a child. When he is informed again and again that his son is failing at math, Willy couldn’t care less. Instead he just takes his son aside and tells him that its alright to cheat on a test to pass the silly class, and as long as people like him for is spot on the football team, he’ll still be set in like.
In Willy’s own life too, when all his old contacts retire and he can no longer get service just through his name alone, he feels like he has no life left. Even though his friend offers him a job, because he no longer feels like he is well liked. He decides his is worth more death than alive.
Willy measures success by how much you’re liked. All that you need for your individual opportunity to grow is to be well liked. Once that is done, anything goes.