We start with Naval's advice on wealth vs. money and status...
"Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy."
~ Naval Ravikant
Money is a means of quantifying the value of time and wealth, and dividing it into easy-to-use units in order to exchange that for other things of value as desired.
Whatever money or currency we have at hand ready to spend is by definition a finite sum just sitting there - a representation of a particular amount of time we spent doing a particular amount of work. Or it represents a portion of wealth we've cashed out (like a business or an apartment building you've sold.)
Especially over the long term, money cannot be considered a lasting asset, if only because of inflation.
McDonald's Menu, 1972. Remember kids, inflation is real
Only ever earning money and not building wealth/gaining assets, is a treadmill you can never step off of, which is what's wrong with the common societal focus on Making Money.
It's a trap even some high-income earners get caught by (see: most lawyers, doctors and executives.)
At the same time, we all desire some degree of status. Many people seek money mainly just to raise their status.
Many other people seek status, even achieve it and cling to it, without actually having set things up to make a lot of money out of it. E-celebs on social media are a prime example. Apparent status can bring income, definitely, but it often *implies* a much higher level of money-coming-in to the onlooker, than is actually there in reality.
Ultimately, because of their similar impacts on our psychology, and the fact that people generally use one to get the other, having Status and having Money are pretty much equivalent in my view.
Having Wealth however is superior, because it means having a reliably incoming flow of Money that doesn't require more time and work to earn it.
It's lasting nature and the power that Wealth can afford you also makes it superior to seeking Status primarily. Status is temporary, fluctuating, fragile, and even toxic at times, and usually requires constant maintenance.
Consider this irony to illustrate the difference between obtaining Status first vs obtaining Wealth first: The other 6 national leaders at the June 2018 G7 Summit are used to *repaying favors* to billionaires in their own countries, and becoming decently wealthy over the course of their time in office. What they're *not* used to is facing exactly such a Billionaire who rose up to be their peer - that is, a President Donald Trump. It must have been so disconcerting, lol.
And of course, in the end established Wealth can confer a stable level of Status anyway if desired.
So. If you're going to be seeking something, seek wealth, not money or status.
I came up with this non-scientific but amazingly clever formula to express the message of Naval's tweet as seen through my own mental filter:
Wealth > Status ≈ Money
(≈ stands for "approximately equal to")
And with that, I think I've said enough on this from this angle. On to the next one...
“The light is before us brothers, so the devil workin’ hard
Real family stick together and see through the mirage
The smokescreens, perceptions of false reality
Who the real owner if your boss gets a salary?”
~ Kanye West, song: Saint Pablo, album: The Life of Pablo
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