\n\n\n\nWhen you see someone driving a nice car, you rarely think, \u201cWow, the \nguy driving that car is cool.\u201d Instead, you think, \u201cWow, if I had that \ncar people would think I\u2019m cool.\u201d Subconscious or not, this is how \npeople think.
\nThe paradox of wealth is that people tend to want it to signal to \nothers that they should be liked and admired. But in reality those other\n people bypass admiring you, not because they don\u2019t think wealth is \nadmirable, but because they use your wealth solely as a benchmark for \ntheir own desire to be liked and admired.
\nThis stuff isn\u2019t subtle. It is prevalent at every income and wealth level. There is a growing business\n of people renting private jets on the tarmac for 10 minutes to take a \nselfie inside the jet for Instagram. The people taking these selfies \nthink they\u2019re going to be loved without realizing that they probably \ndon\u2019t care about the person who actually owns the jet beyond the fact that they provided a jet to be photographed in.
\n
When I got Blue Bitch I was like “yeah, this sweet ‘68-styled CB350 will be a great attention-getting conversation piece with the ladies”, ignorant that who really wants to talk about your old motorcycle are old motorcycle guys, with the result that sketchy, grey-bearded, beer-bellied, leather-skinned older men were constantly stopping me on the street or calling at me from rolled-down windows
"}