Do You Have the Right to Show Off Your Success?
This post is dedicated, first and foremost, to my World of Warcraft guild on the Bloodhoof server. While, for the most part, they are a great bunch of people whom I thoroughly enjoy killing pixels and polygons with, there are some unfortunate exceptions who, I regret to say, have been less than enthusiastic about my online success. Certainly, my jovial announcements in guild chat on how I successfully sold a site for $597 have been greeted with rather mixed response, ranging from dissatisfaction on even mentioning the subject to accusations of spending way too much time talking about myself.
Since I actively link to this blog on my guild’s forums, I thought I should take this as an opportunity to present my side of the story. I have been accused of being an elitist, arrogant, condescending show-off who can only ever think and talk about himself and the money he makes.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is my official explanation - yes, I am an elitist, arrogant, condescending bastard who lives and dies by the mantra that greed is good and who measures his success and that of others solely by earning power. I don’t care what kind of person you are, whether you help orphaned children or live your life in the likelihood of Mother Theresa. All that matters to me is your ability to make money - regardless of how you do it.
I don’t care if you are a drug dealer or an arms smuggler, if you spend your weekends at the office working towards the next promotion or run your own business from the basement of your mother’s house. If you are making any amount of money, you are successful - and the more money you make, the more successful you are.
Now, I know what you’re thinking right now - that this is an extremely shallow and materialistic outlook on life. But you know what? There’s nothing wrong with being shallow and materialistic, so long as you are able to afford both of these qualities not by the virtue of inheriting money from your rich parents, but by working day and night around the clock to be successful.
Bottom line is, there is absolutely nothing wrong with showing off your success and rubbing it into the faces of others, so long as you - and you alone - are responsible for it. If you were born into an affluent family and are now prancing around blinging your way to popularity, then you are rubbish, pure and simple. You deserve neither the money nor the bling - your parents earned it, not you. In terms of personal success, you are nothing.
Conversely, if you earned each and every penny of your fortune yourself, then, in doing so, you have earned the right to show off and otherwise flaunt your success! Believe me, there is nothing more satisfying than standing up in front of all those have-nots and saying “Yes, I am successful. Yes, where you spent your time whining and complaining about the unfairnesss of life, I pulled myself together and forced my way to success, no matter the personal cost. Yes, I have the guts and the courage to get out there and stake my claim in this world. And, because of this, yes, I am better than you.”
What do you think? It goes without saying that this is a very cruel, harsh and materialist philosophy - but, to me, it reflects the truth of life and focuses one on professional success by doing away with superfluous values such as social justice, equality and charity. All that matters is the unending, unrelenting pursuit of cash - because, ever since the beginning of time, cash has been - and remains - king.
Success should not be showed off, it should be kept with one self humbly.
Hey,
Thanks for commenting!
One question, though - why do you feel that way, if I may ask? After all, if you work hard to be successful and feel that you deserve every credit for it, why not flaunt it in front of other people?
What’s so wrong with standing up and saying “Look at me, look at what I have accomplished, look at what I can afford as a result?”
I’d be really curious to hear your reasoning, because your reaction is one that I have encountered many times and yet one that I find very difficult to understand. Unfortunately, I have never had an opportunity for constructive, pragmatic dialogue on this subject.
George,
I personally think there will be many views, arguments and personal opinion on this topic.
You are entitled to beleive that as you have earnt this money this success why not boast about it!! why not boast about the things you can buy!! the things you have accomplished i mean come on you have earned them haven’t you! So what does this make you? an accomplshed man a successful man right?
So you can feel pretty good about yourself.
Then you have to ask yourself a few things - Do i care what other people think of me? Do i want to be respected? Do i want to be liked? Do i want to be looked up to? Do i want people to asspire to be like me?
If the answer to any of these is yes? Then i would say that your outlook on this situation may not help you achieve any of this.
However if you ask yourself some different questions - Do i want to make people feel bad? Do i want people to envy me? Do i want to belittle people?
If the answer to these is yes then i would say continue on with your merry life without a care in the world.
Don’t get me wrong i am not saying that you earning your own success is bad i am not saying that you shouldn’t take pleasure in it. But there is a difference between great men and successful men, and while you may be successful with your current outlook, you will never be resepected or great. To be a great man is to be successful yet humble to have everything yet to appear like it means nothing. To build an empire but for the people and not yourself.
At the end of the day i think this blog shows that you are questioning your outlook and the fact that some of the people you know and their comments have caused you to write it is a good thing. If people work hard yet earn nowhere near as much as you they are still as good as you are.
My advice is simple learn to be humble in your success and you will find that you will be a better person in the majority of your peers eyes.
I would be interested in your opinion of this post?
an iterested party
First of all, thank you for an elaborate and insightful post (I respect your anonymity, but I can’t help wondering if I know you in offline world? Would be sweet if I did!)
I think we all care what others think of us. No matter how much certain people may claim that they don’t care what anyone else says or thinks of them, in reality they do care - and when they project that “I don’t care” image, they usually project it to these people precisely because that’s how they want to be thought of.
In short, I don’t think its accurate to ever claim that I don’t care what others think of me; the real question, as you have put it, is whether I want others to look up to me or envy me.
I think that I derive certain pleasure from having people envy me; it reinforced my own notion that I have achieved something that others have not. The more I am envied, the better my success must have been; otherwise, it wouldn’t be something to feel envy about. It stands to reason that you’re only envious about things that you yourself do not possess - and, as such, envy can be used as an indicator of disparity of possession, and, consequently, a measurement of success.
You see, I firmly believe that not everyone would be belittled by someone else flaunting their success in their faith. For example, if someone who had made a fortune out of nothing approached me and started showing off symbols of their success to me, would I be belittled? Far from it. On the contrary, I would simply observe that person and seek to learn how I can achieve even greater success - and thus, years down the line, turn the tables.
Flaunting success shouldn’t be treated as belittlement; if anything, it should be employed as a powerful motivator to pursue your own ambition - or to grow one, if you lack it (I’m not referring to you, but to people in general). There’s a reason why so many people in the world continue living out the Middle Class Dream - as I choose to call it - preferring to consign themselves to their own little comfort zone rather than reach for the top and do what it takes to be more than just part of the middle.
To an extent, I agree that people who have worked hard to get somewhere should be respected regardless of the outcome - but only to an extent. Put simply, if someone tries to set up a business and fails, they still deserve some degree of respect. But if they spend their entire life working round the clock 9-5 and not getting somewhere due to lack of ambition - in these situations, no respect is warranted.
I guess in the end, for me, it all boils down to whether you’ve got a powerful ambition, an overriding drive to succeed and the willingness to pursue these - regardless of cost. There are some people in life - people whom I was very close to, at one point - whom I positively loathe over what they did to me and others; and yet that does not stop me from having certain grudging admiration and respect for having the willingness to do whatever it takes to get to where they want to be.
Lastly, let me just say that great empires, in my opinion, are not built for the people - I know you meant it in the metaphorical sense of the word, but if you look at the great empires of the past - the Russian, Roman, German and French - for all their talk about looking after the interest of the people, they were little more than vehicles of preserving the interests of the ruling elite, and of constantly expanding their power (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Your feedback would be appreciated,
George
George,
Many thanks for your reply.
I do feel that your outlook, the things that concern you in your life are what they are to you as an individual. This is fine and your extrememly likely to live a fulfilled and succesful and i sincereley hope that you do for i also agree with the concept of if you earn it and work for it then great!!
I agree that of course you care what people think about you again this blog backs this up, but i generally think that their thoughts are only of interest to you and i do not think that they would bother you on a personal level.
I would agree that not everyone would be belittled by you flaunting your success as i am sure there are people out their with the same perspective on life as you and it would inspire them to do better, but i truly hope that you are not blinded to the fact that this is by no means the majority, and that in fact intended or not, whether you care or not, it does effect some people in a very very negative way.
I have some very succesful friends and i have known some very succesful people, however the people who have success yet do not let this dominate their lives are still my friends, i value their opinions and i take on board their advice, however the people i have known who are successful that i have cut out of my life no offence intended is because of a similar outlook to your own.
I have cut these people out of my life purely because, i live my life in a caring, concerning way i consider myself to be a gentleman and care how other people perceive me and i try to make anybody around me to feel as comfortable as possible. This is the way i am the way i was brought up, no matter what social standing politeness and manners are a must.
I would say that the majority of people would deem gloating, boasting and other such actions outside of a close friend group to be impolite. This i beleive is why some people may make comments or react to you in a certain way - yes granted this may be jealousy, envy etc etc but it is still deemed to a degree in most circles an impolite thing to do.
I might be going slightly off track here sorry..
But i would say for you the success is outweighing the cost, you are happy for people that could be good for you, good friends/colleagues/partners to fall by the wayside as your drive for success is the single most important thing in your life.
Yes i would imagine that most empires do cater for the elite, however in their day if you ask the normal people what was great and what was not are the empires that looked after the people rather than the dictators that did not.
In conclusion though i think you are happy with your life and content to distance some people from you to achieve what you deem to be success.
Regards
Dear George,
You are wrong for the following reason.
1. It is boring to hear someone talk about how successful they are. In fact it’s just plain boring to hear someone talk continuously about themselves.
2. Relationships are worth more important than money. You should just yourself on successful relationships with friends and family. Cash is easy to earn, trust is not.
3. You’ve not even earned a lot of money.
work a job you hate to buy things you don’t want or need. Pure status symbols. Life is short and in the end the race is against yourself. Work hard and play hard, there is nothing wrong with dedication, just saying know yourself is what I’m trying to say. Don’t buy crap your told to want. Like these overpriced cars, the instant you drive it off the lot it loses value, a car is one of the worst investments you could make. When I see a person who ‘looks’ rich, I think shiny happy poor people. Actual rich people who show off are extremely rare, and they are usually low key about it and too much of workaholics to have time to show off, besides actually rich people are rare. For example 2 percent of the wealthy own half of the USA’s wealth. For other nations its even worse, in China there is a huge divide between the really poor and the rich, a very small middle class. I see about 80 percent of the population showing off their wealth, some very poorly, trying so hard. It’s sad and funny at the same time. All think they are like the image in the magazine, on the highway poster boards, in the commercials. You are not the image you think you are, you are a consumer. You are not your bank account, you are not the car you drive, you are not your fucking clothes. You are the all singing all dancing crap of the world, we are all part of the same compost heap. Better buy a new Armani suit, it really is more prestigious than a third world bought suit made with child labor, since only 1 percent of people can tell the difference without seeing the tag.
Georgy Boy,
I just read your comment on the CNN BofA Fraud charges article. I found a link to your website, wondering where you were coming from, and stumbled upon your post. I just have to ask, are you serious?
I get the hardworking mentality. Nothing wrong with that. And I know plenty of guys similar to you, missing the point of life in a long and never ending paper chase. There’s also nothing wrong with over-valuing money, at least as far as it affects the other people in your life. But the problem I have with people that share your point of view is that you don’t seem to value people at all. I’m not hearing a lot of human compassion in your posts here.
You say there is nothing wrong with flaunting hard earned wealth. I don’t disagree. But you also back the BofA execs in your post. Now here’s where we differ.
I was robbed at gunpoint last month. Homeboy took the whopping $26 in cash I had, and my girlfriend’s purse. Did he earn his money? And in turn the right to flaunt his new purse?
I hope you would say no, lest you have far less bearing on the real world than I thought. But if you do agree that my attackers armed robbery was wrong, then how can you justify the theft of billions by fat cats atop the banks that are poisoning our country?
Did they “earn” their money?
Hi Charlie,
First and foremost, allow me to thank you for taking the time to look me up, find my blog and leave a comment. I always - always - enjoy discussing this particular subject, especially with people diametrically opposed to my point of view.
It’s interesting that you should mention that robbery - last year, I was approached by four gentlemen of extremely unsavory disposition, had a knife stuck to my throat and explained, in no uncertain voice, that either I had my wallet over or get my throat cut.
Faced with this choice, I obviously cooperated - and I was carrying quite a bit of cash on me at the time (though, luckily, my girlfriend at the time and her Fendi purse were not involved, or I’d never hear the end of that!)
Having shared that experience with you, do I think that these people earned their money or not? I think the important point to consider here is that preciously few people have the guts to gang up and assault a person with a knife in the middle of one of the world’s most affluent cities. It takes courage, motivation, determination, balls and a willingness to take enormous risks for very little reward.
Bottom line is, these people took a much greater risk than most people are willing to take - and, in many respects, one can even go so far as to suggest that, if risk should always be rewarded, then their risk was not rewarded appropriately.
So, long story short, did they earn their money? By virtue of taking the risk, they did - and, more importantly, they have the money now!
“Earning” is a very subjective term. When most people say “earn”, they really mean working long hours and slaving away your entire life to retire with a few hundred thousand saved. But let me put it this way - what’s the difference between a currency trader who opens a $40,000,000 position by leveraging $200,000 at 1:200 and making $100,000 in a matter of minutes while risking a sizable chunk of their investment? That’s the kind of risk that most people who “earn” that $100,000 over a one-year period would never have the guts to take.
Bottom line is, I believe that what should be rewarded is the smarts and the courage to go after what you want - and, if after doing that, you get where you want to be, then you’ve earned it, by taking risks or being cunning enough to operate a scheme that no one quite figured out.
It’s the same reason why I have no problem with what Madoff did (quite frankly, anyone who invests their entire savings into one investment fund or stock is a moron). Anyone intelligent enough to defraud people out of dozens of billions and get away with for so many years clearly deserves a billion or two in his bank account.
Lastly, I also take issue with you saying that I am somehow missing the point of life by chasing money. Let me assure you, having spent seven years here in Geneva, watching people drive around in $1.6 million cars (seriously, Bughatti Veyron - look it up), watching people blow $7,000 at a nightclub in one night, watching ladies walk around with $20,000+ purses - believe me, having seen and experienced that, THAT is the point of life. Leading a life of luxury, excitement, entertainment and champagne spray parties in Marbella (look those up, too). Bottom line is, 20 years later, when I look back on my life, surrounded by two $10,000 a night escorts, smoking a $200 Cuban cigar and critically examining the paint on my new Ferrari, I will sure as hell feel satisfied knowing that I have lived and experienced life as it’s meant to be lived - as opposed to willfully constraining myself to the despicable comfort zone that is the middle class and making myself feel better by ripping on the rich people as the people on CNN were doing