Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses
I was reading an article about the richest people in the world and realized that no one will ever have it all, not even those people with all of their money. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to better yourself or your status… as long as that’s what’s really important to you. Who are you trying to impress, because they may not care.
Listen to this new, 6-minute episode for some thoughts on finding what’s really important, and why it’s not keeping up with the Joneses!
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
Below is a full transcript. If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or contact me via text, use the short form on this page, or call 732.422.6362
Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com
– Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. They’ll always have more than you. Listen to this episode to find out what I’m talking about. Hi, it’s Alan Berg, welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. I was reading an article today about the richest people in the world, and there’s this back and forth between Elon Musk and the guy that runs LVH Group, which is Louis Vuitton and all those luxury brands. And you know, because Elon had to sell some stock to buy Twitter, he’s down to, I don’t know, $160, $180 billion or whatever it is, and the other guy’s right about there. They’re battling back and forth, and I got to think about this. You know, we can never have it all. Even those people can never have it all. They can have a lot, but they can’t have it all. And if you are looking at the people next to you, the people in your neighborhood, the people in the industry, and you’re like, you’re trying to get more than them or beat them or get more than them, it’s just such a futile effort. And not because I don’t want you to have more. I want you to have the right goals. And the right goal isn’t to have more because it’s an unsatisfying thing, right?
So, you get more than somebody else. Okay, so what did that solve? What did that do for you? As opposed to defining what’s important to you, getting what’s important to you, and then not worrying about what’s important to somebody else, let them worry about that. Worry about what’s important to you. It’s the same thing with your sales goals. It’s the same thing with your profit goals. It’s the same thing with any personal goals that you have. I’ve talked about this before, I’ve written about this. Some of you’ve heard me talk about when I did martial arts, I did Taekwondo, and what I learned is, that I’m not really trying to beat someone else unless it’s a tournament. You’re not trying to beat someone else, you’re just trying to beat yourself, just trying to be better than you were the last time. And what I found in my life is when I was younger and I wanted to make more money so I could have a bigger house and a fancier car and all those things, and then you get older and then you have those things and like, okay, well I don’t need a bigger house than I have. I don’t need a fancier car than I have. I’ve said this before, I used to lease our cars. We always had a car payment. And my favorite feature of both my wife’s car and my car right now is that they’re both paid off. Some of you’re shaking your heads going, yes, amen brother, right?
That’s my favorite feature. It’s not any of the buttons and gadgets inside the car anymore. It’s the fact that I don’t have a car payment anymore and I haven’t had one for a few years now and I don’t anticipate having one for a long time because if I take care of my cars, yeah, I might have some maintenance issues with it, but I don’t have a car payment every month. So, who are you trying to do better than? And if it’s not the person in the mirror, I think you’re wasting your time because you don’t control the other people. You don’t control what they have. If you haven’t read a book called, “The Millionaire Next Door,” what they talk about is that the person driving the fancy car, living in the fancy house may not be the richest person in the neighborhood. It could be the person that is living in a more modest home.
If you think about Warren Buffet, one of the richest people in the world, lives in the same home that he bought in the late 70s in Omaha, Nebraska. And I’m sure it’s a nice home, but he bought it, and his goal back then was to buy the house when he could pay cash for it so he didn’t have a mortgage. So, he owns his house outright and has done so for 50 something years, right? The man can clearly afford any house he wants, but that’s not what’s important to him. So, find out what’s important to you, not what’s important to somebody else. You know, having that fancier car with the big car payment or the bigger house with the bigger mortgage, is that going to make you happy or is that going to make you just cash poor? So, find out what’s important. And at different stages in your life these going to be things that are different and important.
For me, it’s always my health first, because without that, I’m no good to anybody else. Then the health of my family, the happiness of my family, doing what I love and having an impact, that’s what’s important to me. And then the money comes. The money comes because I’m doing those things first because I’m not putting the money first because the money is unfulfilling. Having more money these days is just a bigger number on a screen. It not like you have a vault with just piles and piles of cash or gold bullion in it. That’s not satisfying For me, one of my greatest pleasures is buying things for other people. When I used to get a bonus when I was on a salary and I used to get a bonus, I would buy something for my wife and each of my sons, and that gave me pleasure. Not for myself, because if I needed something, I already would’ve bought it. If I wanted something, I probably would’ve bought it.
So, that’s not satisfying for me when I get a bonus to go buy myself something when I probably would’ve bought it already if I really wanted it. Buying it for somebody else and seeing the look on their face and putting thought into that gift, that to me, is much more important. That’s me. That doesn’t have to be you. Find out what’s important to you. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Let them keep up with somebody else. Let them worry about that. You don’t have their goals, you don’t have their income stream, you don’t have whatever else is going on in their lives, you just have yours. So, maximize the joy and what gives you pleasure in your life and don’t worry about anybody else. Hope it gave you some food for thought, thanks.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
©2023 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com
