“There’s always someone with more money,” KSHMR sings. “Someone who goes to better parties in a faster car.”
The problem is not wanting more money or a nice party or a fast car – it is wanting to be the “someone” KSHMR sings about, the someone others envy. Is that who you want to be? That’s the question you must ask when you see success (or fame or happiness) personified rolling by.
Instagram only shows us the best parts of people’s lives, but we can’t just absorb those parts and not the sacrifice they require nor the fallout they create. It has to be an all-in exchange. In his Almanack, Naval Ravikant says:
“Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100% swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous.”
Whether you like it or not, if you chase after someone driving a Lamborghini down the street, the only way to catch them is to become them. You might succeed in the succeeding, but you’ll fail in being you. You’ll cease to be yourself.
“If I fake it till I make it, all I made is a fraud,” KSHMR continues. That’s why “I put myself before my dollars – because being me is easier than being something I’m not.”
There is only one way to win, and it’s your way. Otherwise, it’ll be someone else holding the prize – and what good is the best party if you can’t attend it?