While going for a walk today, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, Modern Wisdom. If you’ve ever listened to Diary of a CEO, it’s pretty much the same. Guest, interviewer, microphone, action.
Today’s guest was Naval Ravikant, who I have heard of, but don’t know much about. Essentially he’s a bit of a big deal down in Silicon Valley, both as a founder, investor, and now, the most appalling of jobs, as a “thought leader”.
I like what he had to say.
The thing that stuck out most for me was his commentary on status games v wealth games.
His advice was to seek wealth, not status, for a few reasons.
- Wealth can be used to buy status far easier than using status to buy wealth
- Minor decreases in status (going from 10th best in the world to 20 best) is far more painful than wealth decreases (having a bad day in the markets)
- Wealth is not zero-sum; by building something that creates value, you benefit yourself, the customers, the employees etc. Status is zero-sum, by nature.
- Due to the zero-sum nature, there is as much “status” points available as there were when Julius Caesar was around. It’s relative. Meanwhile, wealth continues to grow around us, so it’s a lot easier to get. Lots of people can be rich, but only one person can be Jamie Diamond.
- It’s far easier to be satiated by wealth than status. Many people after a certain point might be happy with X amount, and spend very little time increasing that. With status, there will always be a desire for slightly more; not all the time, but sometimes. And that sucks.
They’re my five conclusions, but to boil it down even further, wealth is better than status, and understanding this requires careful thought.
Wealth in many ways is a novel concept, whereas our ability to detect status within our groups and communities is hardwired, limbic, and ancient. And I mean really ancient; by studying evolution, we know that this part of our brain is older than trees.
Interesting podcast, worth a listen.