A short podcast monologue by Wyan (Wednesday with Wyan, Capitalism.com) arguing that many complaints and feelings of failure come from poor points of comparison. Using a mentor’s question (“Who are you comparing yourself to?”) and examples from his 85‑year‑old grandparents, Wyan urges listeners to recognize how much better-off many people are today compared to past generations and to adopt perspective rather than surrender freedoms, hustle, and long-term investment in self.
Chapters
Who are you comparing yourself to? Because I can promise you that there is someone.
There is someone probably in your life who looks at you and says, man, must be nice.
Hey capitalists, it's time to crack open your favorite beverage. I like Zevia. This is Wednesday with Wyan on capitalism dot com.
A few years ago, I was going through a hard time and I met with my mentor to ask him for advice. His name is Travis. And we went to a bookstore and we sat down over a cup of tea and I said, hey, Travis, I'm not doing so hot and I really need your advice. And he asked me what was going on and I said, honestly, I don't feel successful, I don't feel happy, I feel like a failure. I don't know what I'm doing with my life, I don't know where I'm going. And I'm having a really hard time deciding what is best for my life. And dude, I'm just like, I'm not doing so well. And he looked at me and he cocked his head to the side and he goes, dude, who are you comparing yourself to?
One of the concerns I have about my generation, about young people, is that we have no comparison, we have no accurate comparison for how things should be, for how our lives should be. This is why I love to spend time with my 85 year old grandparents. They've been through recessions and depressions, they've been through wars, they've been through good times and bad times, they've had health scares and they have had good years in their marriage, probably bad decades in their marriage. They've been through it all. And my grandparents have said, I feel so blessed, we had such great lives because their comparison is growing up with nothing. Their comparison is having nothing. And one of the things that really concerns me is that young people who we have our noses in our phones, we're all obsessed with what is happening right now. We're so used to the economy being good, to things being easy to us, having access to food, shelter, water, jobs, all kinds of things that make our lives so luxurious that we have no accurate comparison for how things used to be. So when we look at income inequality and we hear people decry the extreme difference between rich and poor, I say, compared to when do you have access to technology? Are your homes heated and artificially cooled? Can you call or ride on your cell phone? Do you have abundant Internet access? You are richer than any generation ever in history. And yes, maybe we have some challenges that we need to address as a society, but you have it better than most people ever had in history. We talk about corrupt politicians. I say compared to who? You realize that politicians used to be able to slaughter their own people. And in some countries that is still the case. We talk about things like racism and I'm not going to pretend that there aren't people with prejudices, but compared to when? Do you have any idea how much progress we have made? Do you have any idea the barriers that we have knocked down? Because we can have a conversation over the Internet and learn to understand one another. We talk about struggle, we talk about economic hardship. Compared to who compared to when. We have it so good. And one of my biggest fears is that we will forget how good we have it. We will assume that it has always been this way. And so we will do things like give up our freedoms, give up the things that made us great.
Give up our hustle that got us to this point. Give up the creativity that we use to invent new things and to start new businesses. That we forget the long term mindset of investing and self development and giving to other people.
That's why people complain about not having success, because they have no comparison to make them appreciate what is good. Now.
Our brains are comparison making machines. What is hot, whatever you're comparing it to, what is beautiful, whatever you're comparing it to.
What is rich, that's relative. That depends on where you are in the world. It depends on who you hang out with. Our brains are based on relativity. That's how we make all judgments. So the next time you complain about anything, I want you to remember what Travis said to me. Who are you comparing yourself to? Because I can promise you that there is someone.
There is someone probably in your life who looks at you and says, man, must be nice. Must be nice to know that person. Must be nice to have that thing. It must be nice to look that way. It must be nice to be able to eat that food. It must be nice to have that washboard stomach. It must be nice to not have to worry about this problem. You have no idea how good you have it. That's what they're saying about you. Even though if they traded places with you, they would envy somebody else.
