OVERRATED — 10 things overrated in Life.
First-order thinking says “it’s a good company; let’s buy the stock.” Second-order thinking says, “It’s a good company, but everyone thinks it’s a great company, and it’s not. So the stock’s overrated and overpriced; let’s sell.” — Howard Marks
1. Money: After you break $10,000/month net, earning more money won’t really make you that much happier. Sure, you can drive a faster car or own a bigger house, but is it really worth all of the effort? I can tell you from experience that the answer is NO!
2. College Degrees: Yay! $100,000 in debt, no marketable skills, and 4 years down the drain (unless you want to be a lawyer, doctor, or something in the STEM fields… then you should degree it up!)
3. Being an Entrepreneur: It’s hard thankless work that will stress you out, turn your hairs grey, and make you wonder why the hell you’re doing it. Unless you are HARD WIRED as an entrepreneur (you know if this is you) work for someone else as an intrapreneur and leave the heavy lifting to those of us cursed with entrepreneurial personality types.
“People who are mature and experienced, with a business background, may be overrated. We used to call these guys ‘newscasters’; they had neat hair and spoke in deep, confident voices, and generally didn’t know much more than they read on the teleprompter.” — Paul Graham
4. 80+ Hour Work Weeks: Ohhhh look at how hard you work! Now tell me again, is this badge of honor that you’re wearing worth the 3 divorces, 2 children who hate you, broken body, chronic stress, and empty life?
5. New Phones: Remind me again why it was worth half of your paycheck to unlock a new (and likely useless) feature on the device that is stealing your life?
6. Motivation: It doesn’t work. Rely on accountability and discipline instead because you will NEVER feel like putting in all of the work required to live your best life.
“Motivation is overrated, environment often matters more.” — James Clear
7. Getting Six Packs: Congrats! You have a six pack and 18″ biceps. But you spend 10 hours in the gym a week, 15 more hours cooking and eating your meals, and half of your paycheck on supplements. Gain a bit of muscle and just be healthy. No need to look like Arnold unless that’s how you make your money.
8. Name Brand Clothing: Because apparently spending 4x as much for a product that is only 10% better is hip these days.
9. Fast Cars: They cost as much as a mortgage, are expensive as hell to repair, put gas in, and insure and, to be honest… They aren’t all that great. Spend $2,000 and drive your dream car on a track. But don’t waste your time and money owning one.
10. Reading a Lot of Books: Sure, information is useful. But it’s only powerful when it’s applied. Read 1–2 GREAT books and take massive action on them instead of reading 365 “ok” books and ignoring them.
Thanks for reading and before you go…
Click ‘Follow’ to join the community of curious knowledge seekers to get weekly articles on finance, health, philosophy, psychology, and technology. If you want email updates, click the ‘Envelope+’ logo.
Follow me for visuals at | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Reddit |
