Amen. Only took me a 10+ years to figure that one out.
But then again Daal, maybe we are biased due to our journey. 10 years ago, I would never have given up the grind because I would not be the same financial position I am now.
Absolutely. I guess when you dont have that much financial abundance it makes more sense to be 'unbalanced' for a while. But once one reaches it, its crazy to continue. The average person is in such a difficult position because they need 30-40 years to get there while a good trader just 5-10 years (I know some more talented traders who got there even faster).
But I also see people who get rich through a grind but they never stop. Wall street investment bankers, highly paid executives, top day traders a lot of these people become slaves to money.
Maybe certain things happened in their childhoods or yonger days that made them value money more than other things (in my case it was influence from my father was well as being a child in a family of 7 children, so there wasnt a lot of money to spare).
The ideal situation is to let that value by higher up on the hiearchy when you dont have it, but after you get it the optimal play is to change your values and send money down line (perhaps upping family/friendships/entertraiment). The older I get the more I seem to realize that the 'best people' in any given field are usually pretty horrible models on how to live.
I'm re-reading a great book right now (Barking up the Wrong Tree, which I highly recommend) and it talks about life satisfaction, happiness, work and other things, based on empirical studies and stuff. Its really amazing how miserable and bad Ted Williams life was (which the books talks about) even though he might be the greatest hitter ever. The sacrifices one has to make in order to reach to the very top (such a valuing work in a obsessive way) makes it extremely hard to be a happy person (or good friend, good husband)etc. In my mind, a better goal is to be on the top 5-10% of a field. That way you get a challenge/goal without running your life.
And a top 10% guy should have a lot more life balance even though he will have to accept there will be people that will be a lot better than him and there will be a lot of money left on the table, but hey, who cares about being the richest man in the graveyard?
One of the greatest problems with globalization is that it is making competition is tough that everywhere companies are slaving their employees because they feel that if they dont, they will go out of business (and they are probably right). The anti-globalization trend that exists these days is good in that respect, it might be unoptimal economically but I believe will be good for the people
