A short first-person reflection reacting to the book The Millionaire Next Door. The speaker contrasts the book’s frugal/anonymous ideal with their own ambition for conspicuous wealth—wanting a large house, nice cars, and to build a multi-generational family estate for gatherings and a farm-like lifestyle. The tone is candid and mildly self-critical about materialism.
I used to read that book, the Millionaire Next Door. It's so dumb. Looking back, it was cool. I thought it was like, oh, man, that's cool. I want to be the millionaire next door. I don't want to be the millionaire next door. I want to be the guy that has the biggest house, with the coolest cars, with the biggest bank. Why can't we have it all? The thing is, with the millionaire next door, I'm not knocking it, if that's what you like. This is what I like. It's what drives me. Yes, it sounds materialistic, but to me, it's an estate. I'm building a family estate, coming for cookouts, and we turn it into a farm, and we try to have the kids playing out. That's where my mind goes. Not just like, oh, yes, big house, dude. I want it all. Why can't we have it all? And these are the things I'm constantly thinking about.
