I often see examples of guys who want to stay completely under the radar. A private individual who made a lot of money with websites and always stays in the shadows. You know nothing about him, yet he has achieved success.
Do you think an ambitious person has a desire to show off? Absolutely.
It’s all tied to status. As long as you remain in the shadows, your status exists only in your own eyes and those of your close ones. But by demonstrating your results to others, you get respect, approval, and sometimes admiration. It’s hard to turn that down. We are all social beings and need society.
This explains buying an expensive car rather than a practical one like a Renault Logan. A very practical car, but one that provides zero status. Hence the endless flame wars in the comments about why on earth you bought such an expensive car just to show off when you could have bought something simpler.
So it becomes an eternal conflict between wanting to show off to gain recognition and wanting to stay low-key.
I realized that everything is good in moderation—I don’t disclose my income, I haven’t spoken at conferences in a long time, and I don’t do interviews, but I’ve chosen an optimal format for myself: Telegram and Instagram, and that’s enough for me.
The desire to be social stems from high testosterone. This hormone used to be associated with aggression and selfishness, but now there is different research on the topic. Just like buying an expensive car, the desire for status comes from high testosterone—from the drive to be a leader.
«We found that many stereotypes do not reflect reality,» said Markus Heinrichs, a researcher at the University of Freiburg, in an interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung. «People with high testosterone levels are often more generous, fair, and considerate.»
I touched on this question of status because this channel is about SEO.
And here it’s important not to go overboard like Tom, who shared his monthly income of $300k and then abruptly shut down his blog and vanished from public view because people started digging into his sites. Later, he dropped the phrase—money likes silence. But the desire for status didn’t disappear; he just went overboard. So now he sits there, holding back with his millions.
So don’t be afraid to share and be generous if you feel the urge inside—just keep a balance.
I motivated several guys to start Telegram channels that grew to a few thousand subscribers, and that feels great. Maybe someone else will find that desire in themselves as well.