Business Insider recently published a story called “Silicon Valley Is Living Inside a Bubble of Tone-Deaf Arrogance.” It highlighted a number of incidents in the Bay area regarding wealth and the ensuing self-confidence it can create.
I don’t know the people in the article, and I don’t want to judge them. But, I can write that money can change people. Out of college, I was making a high salary and I felt really confident. In fact, I felt “special.” I was probably not that enjoyable to be around.
When money in 1998 and 1999 rained from the skies on entrepreneurs and VCs, I saw a few people dramatically change. Not all folks, but a few became more self-centered as the large amounts of capital made them feel “special.”
It’s funny what money can do. It can create a zero-sum paradigm of comparisons. Here’s one: “I have more, you have less; therefore, I’m special and you may not be.” Or this: “That person makes more than I do, and so, what’s wrong with me.”
As I’ve written before, I don’t want to live in a Bubble. Do me a favor: when you catch me being arrogant, Tweet out this blog post to me.
I have a saying I repeat often to my children: with the right values you can survive anything, including success.
Your paradigms call to mind Fr Robert Spitzer’s “4 Levels of Happiness.”
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0016.html