behaviour
Escape Status Games
The rule
Play the wealth game where everyone can win. Avoid the status game, where you rise only by pushing others down.
Where it flips
Loudly 'rejecting status games' can itself become a status game, showing off how simple and wise you are. The fix: actually stop keeping score, quietly. Do not compete to look like the person who cares least about scores.
Wealth is a game where everyone can win. Two people can both build shops and both end up richer. Status is the opposite. For you to rank higher, someone must rank lower. So status games make enemies and envy. Chasing status with money, a flashier car, a show-off portfolio, quietly wrecks wealth, because you spend to look good rather than to grow. The calm investor plays the wealth game and simply ignores the scoreboard of who looks richest.
A worked example
Aarohi's colleague buys a ₹15 lakh car on loan to outshine the office. She keeps her old car and puts the EMI she avoided into index funds. She wins the game that really grows, and skips the one that does not. [illustrative]
How to spot it
- ·the win does not need someone else to lose
- ·spending to grow, not to show off
- ·warning sign: the purchase is about ranking
Naval Ravikant · The Almanack of Naval Ravikant