Unscripted: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship pdfdrive com

~ Douglas Horton, Clergyman

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SCREW THE JONESES
I
n the 2010 remake of 
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
, the young trader asks the
wealthy tycoon how much money he needs; what number is enough?
His response?
More.
This is a favorite scene of some people I know. And it saddens me. You see,
there is no exact formula for happiness, but there is one for unhappiness: 
it’s
comparison—the drive for more when more isn’t needed.
The fact is there’s always someone better off than you. The 
SCRIPTED
media
does a fabulous job reminding us of our peasantry, a daily smattering of success
stories mastheaded on the front page of websites, giving us the constant nag of
anxiety and inadequacy. And yet what you don’t see is the other 95 percent—
those poor souls living in abject poverty where hunger is normal, not the absence
of the latest iGadget. Even if you are reading this crammed on an old lumpy
mattress in a musty basement, there’s someone in another country who’s lying in
a mud hut, struggling to find a dish of rice.
Every day, I could wake up and compare myself to someone else—someone
younger, better looking, wealthier, with a faster car, bigger house, this, that—but
I don’t. Instead, I am grateful for what I have because I know persistent
comparison rituals urging “more” is a one-way ticket to misery.
Comparison is future-oriented and focused on what is missing, creating anxiety.
Gratitude is present-oriented and focused on what you have, creating peace.
Did you know halving something for an eternity, it would never disappear?
Multiplication by half never meets zero. The problem with comparison and the
ultimate drive for “more” is that they are similarly unattainable. 
There is no finish
line because the finish line always moves.
And that moving finish line will always
be a source of antithetical apathy. Instead of being peacefully grateful for your
gifts, you become entrenched in an unending race underscored by longing and
inadequacy. Please don’t confuse this for the “Kaizen Principle,” which is
continual personal improvement—being a better you is not the same as striving
to own the most expensive house on the planet.

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Your defense to “more” fuels the first 
UNSCRIPTED
discipline: 
comparative
immunity.
Comparative immunity is being at peace with your present pace while
abstaining from the unwinnable game of comparison.
With comparative
immunity, you're laughing at the Joneses for their idiocy; you pursue what’s
important while denying the rest.
For example, I could easily compare my entrepreneurial achievements to
other entrepreneurs and conclude: I’m not as successful or high-profile as they
are. “OMG, Johnny Entrepreneur just sold his company for $25 million! That’s
more than what I sold mine for!” These unguarded comparisons could force me
into actions incongruent with my goals. My goals aren’t theirs. My goal isn’t to
appease hecklers and haters who might say I need to create more “wins” when
more wins isn’t my goal. My goal is living 
UNSCRIPTED
—not an 
Inc. Magazine
cover. If I played the comparison game, appeasing opinions and “what other
people think” becomes more important than appeasing myself. One pursuit is
architected by the disease of comparison while the other is written by my soul.

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