Sam Parr sold a business for $20 million and bought a luxury car, a $900k home, and premium services. None of it made him happy. The real shift was confidence to start new things, but he developed paranoia about losing the money.
There's a study about people who are amputees, and they found that after 6 months, the level of happiness went back to where they were when they had both legs. That kind of happens when you make some money. So for the first while, I didn't have a lot of money. And then all of a sudden I sold a business and I walked away with about $20 million. At first I bought a fancy car. I think that brings close to no happiness. My home that I live in, in Austin, I paid $900,000 for it. I have a cleaning lady who comes once a week. That's $120 a week. I do some health stuff, so I have a fancy gym and I go to fancy doctors. Collectively, that's $1,000 a month. I don't own any jewelry. I'm wearing a fresh, clean tee. It's a $10 t-shirt. I wear those constantly. When I go out to eat, I don't look at prices. And when I go to Whole Foods, I buy the fanciest stuff. But the biggest change is my confidence. My confidence went through the roof. I'm incredibly confident in my ability to start something and to see it through to be a success. I still have paranoia that I'm going to lose everything, and I still have massive fears about going broke. That is something that my therapist and I are working through still.
