Distinguishing Materialism From Hard-Earned Success

I wanted to talk a little bit about the concept of being materialistic. This came to the forefront of my brain because I was recently partaking in a webinar and hearing the presenter talk about a couple different things.

At one point, they brought up this concept of somebody having a private jet and a yacht, and other materialistic things like that. It definitely wasn’t the driving point of the presentation by any stretch.

It was more of an offhand remark. That person was saying that because you may have a private jet or maybe a yacht or something of that nature, you have a materialistic nature. It was a statement where if you have these things, then you are this.

It really struck me as really fascinating, because it becomes in my opinion a mindset issue. A does not always equal B in this sense. You can have a jet and not be materialistic. You can have a yacht and not be materialistic.

There is a difference of things, and it was just fascinating to see during the course of this presentation, a little bit of that person’s upbringing or just their worldview really, creeping into that a little bit and expressing itself in that form of “super rich people are material”.

It just got me thinking, what makes somebody materialistic? I usually talk about directly dealing with leadership and leadership in the business place and your workplace.

However, it is completely applicable because it deals with our mindsets and the preconceived notions that we bring to our workplace, to our leadership roles, how we view those around us and how we interact with those around us.

Somebody who’s in the middle class would look at somebody who has a Mercedes-Benz or one or two BMWs or some other really nice car as materialistic, because they have something they don’t have.

In the same sense, somebody who’s in the upper class and their normal driver is a Mercedes (I’m using cars as an example because they are simple visualizations) would look at somebody that drives a Bentley or a Rolls Royce as materialistic.

In the same sense, somebody that’s dirt poor and struggling just to make ends meet and pay their rent, they would look at somebody who has a brand new Honda Accord as materialistic.

It’s just levels of perception and levels of judgment of those that have things you don’t have or that you are not capable of having at the moment.

As we go along this, this can apply to anything as we are, as we are seeing other people doing things we can’t afford to do. Materialism is really about what we can spend our resources on, our money and things of that nature.

We see people take this extravagant vacation up to Whistler Ski Resort, and they have this huge family vacation and because of that they are just materialistic.

Is it that they are materialistic or you just can’t afford to do that and you are jealous of it right there? There comes some little level of play in that term as far as your perception and your worldview of people that purchase things with the resources they have that you do not.

We forget that there are different levels to this. There are people that are ahead of you in, let’s just call it the game of money, the game of finance, the game of accumulating resources.

Then there are people that are behind you and there are people that are right there with you. There are people that will reach levels of resourcefulness and “being materialistic” that you may not reach.

Why is that? We won’t go too much into that aspect of things of why that is. I do want to specifically address that notion of how we view those people.

I would strongly encourage you if that is a go-to thought pattern that you have, when you see people that are, whether it be more successful than you, their relationship appears to be better than you, they have a bigger house, etc, to check yourself a little bit.

Ask yourself: “What is it that is making me say those things about that person?”

A famous example of this was Michael Jackson. He was known for just going out and just buying everything in sight.

I remember seeing this documentary where a crew was following him around and he went into some shop and he was just buying everything.

It wasn’t picking it up and noticing “Oh, this is really cool”. It was just: “That over there. I want that, I want that painting, and that other thing”. He was doing it just for the accumulation of stuff and maybe a little retail therapy.

That type of behavior, I would slant more under the definition of materialistic. He’s purchasing things for the sake of purchasing things. That: “Look at all these things that I have” versus just being able to afford nice things and that’s what you choose to buy.

I would not automatically put somebody that maybe has a private jet as materialistic. Maybe their business is going all across the world and that makes sense for them. That economy may be actually cheaper that way.

People are rarely taking the time to find out, to dig that deeper, because it’s so much easier just to send out that dismissal of “They are materialistic, they are bad, they really are not using their resources properly”.

Why aren’t we, as a society or as just natural personalities, congratulatory instead of being jealous and judgmental of it? Congratulations on your success. Congratulations that you landed that new client and you got your dream car.

There’s nothing wrong with that. We all have to have goals. We all have to have things that we strive for and that are worth sacrificing for in order to make life enjoyable and with the people that we enjoy.

I would strongly encourage you, as you are finding yourself leaning towards these thoughts, to take that moment. First ask yourself: “Why am I having this thought?”

Secondly: “Is this thought something coming from me or is it some behavior that’s coming from them that’s causing that thought?” This is to determine how you interpret their behavior.

Three: “Why am I not slanting or leaning towards being congratulatory, celebratory with them, honoring them for their success?”

There was certainly a time when I would be walking down the street and I would see a really nice Lamborghini or something going down the road, and I couldn’t believe they spent their money on that.

Does this still happen to you? Do you have goals that may appear as materialistic to some people, but has a bigger meaning for you? I would be glad to read about them.

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