Everything You Can’t Have

At Marcellus, our purpose is to make wealth creation simple and accessible. But why bother creating wealth when it isn’t apparent that wealthy people are necessarily any happier? In a recent piece by Morgan Housel, he showed in some sense, most of us want enough money so we don’t have to think about money but it is never easy. In this short piece, Morgan Housel shows why that is the case.

“This all makes sense when you understand what your brain wants.
It doesn’t want nice cars or big homes.
It wants dopamine.
That’s it.
Your brain just wants dopamine.
I’ll leave it to the excellent book The Molecule of More to describe the process (emphasis mine):
“Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more – more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises.
In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality.
From dopamine’s point of view, it’s not the having that matters; it’s getting something – anything – that’s new.”

Your brain doesn’t want stuff. It doesn’t even want new stuff. It wants to engage in the process and anticipation of getting new stuff.

This is similar to Will Smith’s description of fame: Becoming famous is amazing. Being famous is a mixed bag. Losing fame is miserable.
The change, not the amount, is what matters.
You can see this so often with money.”

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Note: the above material is neither investment research, nor financial advice. Marcellus does not seek payment for or business from this publication in any shape or form. Marcellus Investment Managers is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India as a provider of Portfolio Management Services. Marcellus Investment Managers is also regulated in the United States as an Investment Advisor.

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