In finance, we are obsessed with benchmarks. We measure our returns against the S&P 500, we measure our compensation against our peers, and we measure our social status against the neighborhood we live in. We are entirely driven by what author Luke Burgis identifies as "mimetic rivalry"—the deeply ingrained human tendency to desire things simply because other people desire them.
Today, we look at the danger of letting the crowd choose your destination.
The Wisdom Bite:
“You don't need to worry about progressing slowly. You need to worry about climbing the wrong mountain." – James Clear
The financial industry thrives on pushing people up the wrong mountains. Consider the relentless pursuit of yield in a low-rate environment. Investors, dissatisfied with a safe 6% return, will frequently borrow heavily at 5% to leverage their portfolio and achieve a 10% return. They climb the mountain of higher returns at a rapid pace, completely ignoring that they have strapped the dynamite of debt to their backs. When the market inevitably corrects, the leverage destroys them. They progressed quickly, but they climbed the mountain of ruin.
Similarly, we see individuals grind away in jobs they despise, working 70 to 90 hours a week to amass wealth, falling into the trap of "Work for Work's Sake" (W4W). They sacrifice their autonomy, their health, and their relationships to reach a financial summit that ultimately offers them no joy. They have successfully scaled the peak of misery.
The Wisdom Bite:
“Perhaps if I only realized that I do not admire what everyone seems to admire, I would really begin to live after all. I would be liberated from the painful duty of saying what I do not think…” – Thomas Merton
John Maynard Keynes famously likened the stock market to a beauty contest where the goal isn't to pick the prettiest face, but to predict which face the average entrant will find prettiest. We spend our lives trapped in this third-degree game of anticipating what average opinion expects average opinion to be. We buy hyped technology stocks and speculative meme coins not because we admire their intrinsic value, but because we assume everyone else will admire them tomorrow.
This same trap applies to our life choices. We adopt the "deferred life plan," enduring decades of work we hate while hoping one day we will finally be free. We pursue the accumulation of money to buy things that impress people we don't even like.
The Financial Takeaway:
Take a brutal inventory of your portfolio and your life. Are you holding assets, taking on leverage, or working a job purely to satisfy the expectations of the crowd? True wealth is measured in autonomy—the ability to wake up every morning and say you can do whatever the hell you want. Liberate yourself from the duty of chasing what the herd admires. If you are climbing the mountain of mimetic desire, it is time to climb down and find your own peak.
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