1278 Good Fortune

Congratulations to anyone who has had the good fortune to successfully climb the economic ladder, whether through merit or luck, most often a combination of both. The old adage that “when I got rich, I didn’t change but everyone else did,” seems funny but it’s true. A person who finally looks up from their pursuit of financial freedom will discover they are in a different world: it’s as if all the people they used to know have been taken over. The simple explanation is envy & avarice. People will automatically assume they should share in any good fortune of your life. Worse, if they feel you owe them for even the most trivial matters; this expectation of your largess will quickly turn into resentment when you do not fulfill your side of the obligation. Indeed, you will need to either lavishly share most of what you’ve made with your old relations, or make new friends who are at the same status level as you. Interestingly, the “fortune” half of good fortune is noteworthy because these feelings of greed are not inspired by people who have simply gotten famous without gaining money: just knowing a famous person and being able to brag about it is payment enough. Therefore it’s better to be famous than rich if keeping old relationships is important to you. Good fortune may not be so good after all.