#he's still very unwise but at least he's smart. too bad that i the player am wise and i am not smart.

[hikarinokusari]

I'm writing yet another elf PC's sheet and I write him like a cryptid. My DM stole something and now he turned from being a softie softie to being a gremlins.

[saegusakin]

GOTG Headcanons: Video Games

OVERWATCH

- They have a pretty solid teamcomp. Quill is usually a fairly reliable ADC, Rocket tanks, Groot is a support, Gamora is a sniper, and Drax is usually a second tank. Mantis can be swapped in as a second support.

- Quill’s main in Overwatch is McCree. He’s pretty spot on with the flashbangs and decent with headshots. Occasionally he’ll swap to Reaper for more guaranteed damage (and because hearing ‘DIE DIE DIE’ over his music amuses him), or Lucio if the team needs more healing. He’s probably honestly best at Lucio, but he likes being an ADC, so go figure. He can tank as well, but he only started trying after Halloween thanks to Zarya’s new skin. 

- Rocket is a tank player to the end in Overwatch. He’s familiar with all the tanks, but he’s best with D.Va. He’loves ramming into people using a giant mecha and blowing people up. Giving her missiles was just an improvement in his opinion. He can fill if needed - his ADC is 76, healer is Moira, and defense is Junkrat. If he’s particularly angry, he’ll enlist Groot....and his Junkrat paired with Groot’s Roadhog is terrifying. Rocket’s Junkrat is the definition of ‘nowhere is safe.’

- Gamora is a sniper most of the time - usually Widowmaker, though she can Ana if they need the extra heals. She’s a pain in the ass to fight against if she’s focused, and most of the time she is. If she wants to really get into the fight, however, she’ll go Doomfist. She likes hitting people head-on and that usually results in a fairly panicked Groot following after her while she stays entirely fine.

- Groot is the team healer. His Mercy is fairly honed, and he’s not half-bad at the other supports as well. If healing isn’t a big problem, he’ll probably go Symmetra. He’s pretty good at being real jumpy so people can’t stop his beam. He can probably also go as Roadhog for a tank, and Mei is his best defense.

- Drax is probably close to a one-trick Reinhardt if he didn’t also sometimes play Doomfist as well. He can try other tanks, but none are near close to his pretty terrifying Reinhardt. You know how Rein laughs sometimes when he attacks people? Drax is literally doing that at the same time as he plays.

- Mantis is another good healer, though she prefers playing Ana. She is the one that will give Drax the nanoboost and let him go wild on the opposing team. Alternatively, in some tight pinches, she’s proven to be a fairly adept Genji, though she doesn’t necessarily like it. 

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

- This teamcomp is a bit more adaptable because they tend to watch off and on, but their most solid comp is Gamora on top, Quill on mid, Rocket as ADC, and Groot as support, with Drax in the jungle.

- Quill is the most annoying Lux player you will ever meet. He will stun you. Repeatedly. His specialty in League is ‘make the opponent so annoyed that they really don’t want to bother anymore.’ His biggest problem is that he gets so into the one-on-one fighting that he really doesn’t farm minions enough. Alternatively, he can easily go top as Jayce or Garen or support as Rakan. If he goes Rakan, it’s almost guaranteed Rocket will go Xayah and they’ll win their lane.

- Gamora is usually their top, and she has a variety of champions she could pick, but Riven is her favorite. Irelia is a close second, however. She’s horrible with setting up for ganks - but she usually doesn’t need them, anyway, unless the enemy jungler is smart enough to focus her right away. She had the steepest learning curve with the game, however, because she kept getting hit by the tower and thinking it was okay until she died when she first started playing. She’s also a fairly good mid, given Katarina.

- Rocket is a pretty straightforward Twitch main as far as his ADC goes. Occasionally, he’ll bust out a pretty cruel Jinx or Kalista, but Twitch is definitely his main - unless Quill is volunteering to support, in which case they’ll both go for a Xayah/Rakan team. He’s fairly adaptable as a fill - he uses Rumble a fair bit on top, Udyr in jungle, Lulu as support, and Veigar as mid. 

- Drax is jungle. He will jungle all day every day and his Warwick and Rengar are bad news all over.  It’s safe to say that most of the Guardians will easily bounce off of his ganks fairly well, though sometimes he gets too bloodthirsty and ends up with the most deaths on the team. He can also top pretty well as Tryndamere or Pantheon. He is convinced Rocket is literally a yordle. Rocket cannot change his mind on this and has given up on the prospect of ever doing so.

- Groot is the support again.  Surprisingly, his main is Bard, and he only plays Ivern if he wants to jungle. He’s a fairly passive support when he’s given Bard and mainly focuses on making sure Rocket is okay, but if he’s given Blitzcrank, that’s when he gets vicious. His Ivern isn’t a slouch, either. The few games where he’s played top, he is the most annoying Teemo. He will poison everyone. Repeatedly. And get away scott-free. 

- Mantis is an alternative support, though she prefers playing Soraka. She’s very much focused on heals and she knows when to best use them, though she’ll occasionally switch to Sona for variety. If she has t pick another lane, she’ll likely jungle and use Amumu. She’s good at stuns - and there’s at least one time she played mid as Annie and did fairly well. 

OTHER GAMES

- Overall, Rocket is best at tactical strategy games (he plays Fire Emblem on the hardest difficulty and....his victories are pragmatic, but he still has beaten all of the ones he’s played. He’s also a fairly passionate Metal Gear fan. His secret soft spot is Harvest Moon games. He will let absolutely no one know about this (the only reason he knows Quill knows is that the second save slot on his copy of Harvest Moon DS was taken by Quill at some point, who immediately took on marrying the Witch Princess. Rocket approved, though he married Muffy on his save file.)

- Quill is more into action-adventure, though one of his new prize possessions is an original game boy with Pokemon Gold. He takes pride in being a pokemon master and it’s pretty unwise to face him. He also, of course, adores Just Dance and Dance Dance Revolution. He’s had all the Guardians try Just Dance at least once and it ended with a fairly drunk Rocket stuck doing ‘You’re The One That I Want’ with him, which was fairly nice all things considered since he was promptly dragged away by Rocket afterwards. He also learned that Drax can dance to Rasputin. And ONLY Rasputin. Anything else is out of the question.

- Gamora is the one who plays the most fighting games. It’s best to not give her Princess Zelda in Smash Bros unless you want to lose immediately, which is also why it’s a poor idea to give her Paasoul in Skullgirls. The only one able to rival hhr in Skullgirls is Rocket, and that’s when he’s playing Peacock, though Drax’s Beowulf isn’t bad either. She’s still the best, though. She’s also a big Metal Gear fan, and it’s one of the rare things she and Rocket can bond over.

- Groot plays games for the story, which is...fairly interesting for everyone else involved, because if it’s something like a Telltale game, that’s when they can really see what he’s like outside of Rocket translating for him. And he has played all of his games as lawful or at least neutral good. The one time he tried to play a game on an evil path he felt too bad and immediately started over. The time he was playing Wolf Among Us with Rocket watching, and he picked [GLASS HIM] was also a sight to behold. Rocket cracked up. Groot was distressed.

- Drax is the one who will play rage-inducing games just for the challenge, however much everyone else really doesn’t want him to. Surprisingly, he hasn’t broken any TVs or game systems. Yet. He’s jealous that Quill and Rocket are a pretty good Cuphead - Mugman team, however. He’s also the one who accidentally sends everyone invites to crappy games over Facebook. Castle Wars was a thing for a while. No one but Drax was happy and Rocket half-assed it from the start.

- Mantis likes story-based games as well, though she loves dating sims. She doesn’t care about the sex, but she is there for story and seeing how she can improve other characters lives. Dramatical Murder was the only one to weird her out enough to the point of stopping completely, and Mink’s route was...distressing to her. Rocket tried to play it afterwards and regretted his decision. The Quill tried to play it. Quill was the only one to finish it. It was a firm ‘4/10 on his list.

[samuelfields]

Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody

When I first started Financial Samurai, I was proud of finally creating something. For too long, I had just followed orders. Yet, I couldn’t tell anybody about my hobby because I was still employed. I was afraid if my employer found out, they’d tell me to shut it down or at the very least, dock my bonus for being unfocused. After all, the site was started in the middle of the financial crisis and they were always looking for reasons to cut costs.

When I finally engineered my layoff three years later in 2012, I still felt it was unwise to tell anybody about my site even though I was internally beaming with pride about the site’s growth. I felt like a new parent who wanted to annoy the crap out of all his friends by cooing about every milestone their child hit.

But because I had five years of deferred compensation on the line, even if there was just a 1% chance my old employer would withhold payment, I didn’t want to risk losing six years of living expenses. And so, I kept my mouth largely shut until I had a decision to make on 4/21/2017, when my last severance-related payment hit my bank account.

In a way, the five-year time period when I was collecting my deferred compensation was like a mental jail. Like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption reaching for the stars as rain spatters his face, full emancipation only came years after leaving Corporate America.

With nothing holding me back in 2017, it would seem like finally, I could brag to everyone that I had created a website large enough to support a family in San Francisco. With some publicity would come growth. But alas, I felt it was much better to keep a low profile.

For those of you who are thirsty for attention, let me share some thoughts about being a nobody for so long and why it may be in your best interest to do the same. 

The Joy Of Being A Nobody

1) You focus on what truly matters. Whenever you create something you’re proud of, there’s a natural tendency to want to tell everybody about your success. Look at me. I am so great! The more you share, the more addicted you become to the attention and the less you focus on the work that made you proud in the first place.

There are people who are trapped in a cyclone of self-validation, e.g., constantly posting selfies of a new look on Twitter, showing off a new car on Facebook, or writing about yet another fabulous vacation on Instagram. Think about it. If your self-esteem is strong, why do you need to tell anybody about anything you do?

We all need some sort of attention or validation. I get it. But moderation is the word. Don’t let such need to be recognized get out of control.

Not being able to publicly disclose I ran Financial Samurai for eight years made me focus on the only thing that mattered to its growth: writing regular content. I couldn’t leverage my network of entrepreneurs and financially savvy folks. I couldn’t leverage my resume. I couldn’t leverage my Asian heritage. Nor could I leverage my fabulous good looks to get on TV (ok, not really).

The only way I could grow was to compete on quality of content. Could I tell an interesting enough story that kept people engaged? Could I write valuable enough content where people could learn and grow their wealth and happiness? Could I write a post so polarizing that it would turn off a bunch of readers, but attract a bunch more because they saw the reality in what I was saying?

These were the challenges that I focused on every single week for years. And due to the focus, this site grew.

2) You become impervious to insults. After you’ve been called a loser, an idiot, a dumb ass, arrogant, out of touch, shameful, a dickhead, a chink, and the many other epithets, your mind turns bulletproof. After all, when you’re already a nobody, nothing can be any lower.

And because I’m a nobody, even the smallest words of kindness are meaningful. Today, I get more joy from a nice response to my private newsletter than I would if I was a public personality being lauded with praise all the time. I also developed the ability to ignore or instantly forget anybody who shows hate. It’s like having the super power of selective amnesia.

Developing a thick skin can really help the relationships that matter most to you. For example, let’s say your husband or wife comes home from work extremely grumpy one day. If you’ve been able to develop a thick skin, you’ll more easily brush off his or her boorishness as a temporary phase.

What’s also interesting is that while insults no longer hurt as much, they still very much act as motivators to keep on going. I often use negative feedback to create new posts, thereby buttressing the survival of Financial Samurai, which in turn allows my family to continue living free.

3) You can live your life in peace. Being famous is a curse. Yet, for some reason, kids seem to have an insatiable desire for worldwide attention. What the hell happened? Is it due to social media or bad parenting or both?

When you’re famous, many people want something from you, mostly your time. And given time is more valuable than money, being known robs you of your most precious asset. Thank goodness I’m not famous. However, FS has grown large enough to where I get emails every single day asking for help without the person ever attempting to build a relationship first. If this scale of inquiry frequency were to transfer into the real world, I probably wouldn’t be able to step out of the house.

For example, one day my friend blew me up while we were soaking in a hot tub after tennis at a club. He asked me, ���How is Financial Samurai doing?” in front of five other fellow soakers, and one of them perked up and began asking me at least 10 questions ranging from whether she should buy property to whether she should go back to grad school. She had been a reader of Financial Samurai for three years.

Of course I had to be nice and answer her questions. I’m always honored to meet a long-time reader. But after 2+ hours of grueling tennis, all I wanted to do was soak in the hot tub, drink a beer, and relax.

Now imagine if you were actually famous, and didn’t just have some small-time website. You would never be able to do anything in public in peace. Every single move you make would be questioned. Your words will be twisted to fit an agenda. You’d never be able to be yourself.

4) There are no expectations of you. When you’re a nobody, nobody expects you to do anything or do anything special. Therefore, you can regularly surpass expectations.

As a 5.0 rated tennis player, I’m supposed to readily beat 4.5 rated tennis players. If I do, nobody cares. But if I lose, as I’ve done before, it’s a disaster. I’d much rather be a 3.5 tennis player and beat up on 4.0s, 4.5s, and 5.0s instead. This is why there are so many sandbaggers in any competitive activity.

Think about all the celebrities out there who are expected to always look good in public. What a drag! Most of the time, normal people just want to put on some comfortable clothes after washing their faces, and go for a leisurely walk without anybody taking their picture.

What about if you are a Harvard alumni? You are expected to do great things because you were so great in high school. But the sad reality is, a significant majority of Harvard alumni end up doing the same thing everybody else does in society. What a let down.

It’s no fun having the weight of the world on your shoulders. Life is so much better when you can surprise on the upside and be judged based on what you do.

5) You allow your children to be their own people. I feel sorry for the children of celebrities who find themselves in the limelight because of parental transgressions. Children shouldn’t have to suffer due to the sins of their parents. Nor should children be forced to feel the pressure of matching their parent’s success.

If you’re always posting pictures of your kids who aren’t old enough to consent to public exposure, consider slowing down. You’re exposing them to public scrutiny which they haven’t asked for. Please don’t exploit your children to further your ego or business interests.

Protect them until they are old enough to make rational decisions for themselves.

Be Rich, Not Famous

All this desire for fame and prestige is truly a waste of time. Get your 15 minutes of fame to satisfy your curiosity. Maybe get 30 minutes just to be sure.

Unless you’re a completely insecure person, you’ll realize the attention you seek is really just a band-aid for some deeper problem that needs fixing.

Work on accumulating enough passive income so you never have to listen to anybody again. Accumulate at least 20X your annual expenses in liquid net worth so you can start feeling the joy of financial freedom. The only things that matter are your friends, your family, and your freedom.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Related:

The Rise Of Stealth Wealth: Ways To Stay Invisible From Society’s Rage

The Stealth Wealth Compendium Of Useful Phrases To Protect Your Freedom

Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead

Readers, why do you think people seek so much attention nowadays? Why do people pick fights with others and say stupid things over social media if they still depend on a job to survive? If you want to be famous beyond your circle of people that matter, please explain why. What are some of the positives of being famous over being a nobody?

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Be-rich-not-famous.m4a

The post Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/be-rich-not-famous/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[mcjoelcain]

Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody

When I first started Financial Samurai, I was proud of finally creating something. For too long, I had just followed orders. Yet, I couldn’t tell anybody about my hobby because I was still employed. I was afraid if my employer found out, they’d tell me to shut it down or at the very least, dock my bonus for being unfocused. After all, the site was started in the middle of the financial crisis and they were always looking for reasons to cut costs.

When I finally engineered my layoff three years later in 2012, I still felt it was unwise to tell anybody about my site even though I was internally beaming with pride about the site’s growth. I felt like a new parent who wanted to annoy the crap out of all his friends by cooing about every milestone their child hit.

But because I had five years of deferred compensation on the line, even if there was just a 1% chance my old employer would withhold payment, I didn’t want to risk losing six years of living expenses. And so, I kept my mouth largely shut until I had a decision to make on 4/21/2017, when my last severance-related payment hit my bank account.

In a way, the five-year time period when I was collecting my deferred compensation was like a mental jail. Like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption reaching for the stars as rain spatters his face, full emancipation only came years after leaving Corporate America.

With nothing holding me back in 2017, it would seem like finally, I could brag to everyone that I had created a website large enough to support a family in San Francisco. With some publicity would come growth. But alas, I felt it was much better to keep a low profile.

For those of you who are thirsty for attention, let me share some thoughts about being a nobody for so long and why it may be in your best interest to do the same. 

The Joy Of Being A Nobody

1) You focus on what truly matters. Whenever you create something you’re proud of, there’s a natural tendency to want to tell everybody about your success. Look at me. I am so great! The more you share, the more addicted you become to the attention and the less you focus on the work that made you proud in the first place.

There are people who are trapped in a cyclone of self-validation, e.g., constantly posting selfies of a new look on Twitter, showing off a new car on Facebook, or writing about yet another fabulous vacation on Instagram. Think about it. If your self-esteem is strong, why do you need to tell anybody about anything you do?

We all need some sort of attention or validation. I get it. But moderation is the word. Don’t let such need to be recognized get out of control.

Not being able to publicly disclose I ran Financial Samurai for eight years made me focus on the only thing that mattered to its growth: writing regular content. I couldn’t leverage my network of entrepreneurs and financially savvy folks. I couldn’t leverage my resume. I couldn’t leverage my Asian heritage. Nor could I leverage my fabulous good looks to get on TV (ok, not really).

The only way I could grow was to compete on quality of content. Could I tell an interesting enough story that kept people engaged? Could I write valuable enough content where people could learn and grow their wealth and happiness? Could I write a post so polarizing that it would turn off a bunch of readers, but attract a bunch more because they saw the reality in what I was saying?

These were the challenges that I focused on every single week for years. And due to the focus, this site grew.

2) You become impervious to insults. After you’ve been called a loser, an idiot, a dumb ass, arrogant, out of touch, shameful, a dickhead, a chink, and the many other epithets, your mind turns bulletproof. After all, when you’re already a nobody, nothing can be any lower.

And because I’m a nobody, even the smallest words of kindness are meaningful. Today, I get more joy from a nice response to my private newsletter than I would if I was a public personality being lauded with praise all the time. I also developed the ability to ignore or instantly forget anybody who shows hate. It’s like having the super power of selective amnesia.

Developing a thick skin can really help the relationships that matter most to you. For example, let’s say your husband or wife comes home from work extremely grumpy one day. If you’ve been able to develop a thick skin, you’ll more easily brush off his or her boorishness as a temporary phase.

What’s also interesting is that while insults no longer hurt as much, they still very much act as motivators to keep on going. I often use negative feedback to create new posts, thereby buttressing the survival of Financial Samurai, which in turn allows my family to continue living free.

3) You can live your life in peace. Being famous is a curse. Yet, for some reason, kids seem to have an insatiable desire for worldwide attention. What the hell happened? Is it due to social media or bad parenting or both?

When you’re famous, many people want something from you, mostly your time. And given time is more valuable than money, being known robs you of your most precious asset. Thank goodness I’m not famous. However, FS has grown large enough to where I get emails every single day asking for help without the person ever attempting to build a relationship first. If this scale of inquiry frequency were to transfer into the real world, I probably wouldn’t be able to step out of the house.

For example, one day my friend blew me up while we were soaking in a hot tub after tennis at a club. He asked me, “How is Financial Samurai doing?” in front of five other fellow soakers, and one of them perked up and began asking me at least 10 questions ranging from whether she should buy property to whether she should go back to grad school. She had been a reader of Financial Samurai for three years.

Of course I had to be nice and answer her questions. I’m always honored to meet a long-time reader. But after 2+ hours of grueling tennis, all I wanted to do was soak in the hot tub, drink a beer, and relax.

Now imagine if you were actually famous, and didn’t just have some small-time website. You would never be able to do anything in public in peace. Every single move you make would be questioned. Your words will be twisted to fit an agenda. You’d never be able to be yourself.

4) There are no expectations of you. When you’re a nobody, nobody expects you to do anything or do anything special. Therefore, you can regularly surpass expectations.

As a 5.0 rated tennis player, I’m supposed to readily beat 4.5 rated tennis players. If I do, nobody cares. But if I lose, as I’ve done before, it’s a disaster. I’d much rather be a 3.5 tennis player and beat up on 4.0s, 4.5s, and 5.0s instead. This is why there are so many sandbaggers in any competitive activity.

Think about all the celebrities out there who are expected to always look good in public. What a drag! Most of the time, normal people just want to put on some comfortable clothes after washing their faces, and go for a leisurely walk without anybody taking their picture.

What about if you are a Harvard alumni? You are expected to do great things because you were so great in high school. But the sad reality is, a significant majority of Harvard alumni end up doing the same thing everybody else does in society. What a let down.

It’s no fun having the weight of the world on your shoulders. Life is so much better when you can surprise on the upside and be judged based on what you do.

5) You allow your children to be their own people. I feel sorry for the children of celebrities who find themselves in the limelight because of parental transgressions. Children shouldn’t have to suffer due to the sins of their parents. Nor should children be forced to feel the pressure of matching their parent’s success.

If you’re always posting pictures of your kids who aren’t old enough to consent to public exposure, consider slowing down. You’re exposing them to public scrutiny which they haven’t asked for. Please don’t exploit your children to further your ego or business interests.

Protect them until they are old enough to make rational decisions for themselves.

Be Rich, Not Famous

All this desire for fame and prestige is truly a waste of time. Get your 15 minutes of fame to satisfy your curiosity. Maybe get 30 minutes just to be sure.

Unless you’re a completely insecure person, you’ll realize the attention you seek is really just a band-aid for some deeper problem that needs fixing.

Work on accumulating enough passive income so you never have to listen to anybody again. Accumulate at least 20X your annual expenses in liquid net worth so you can start feeling the joy of financial freedom. The only things that matter are your friends, your family, and your freedom.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Related:

The Rise Of Stealth Wealth: Ways To Stay Invisible From Society’s Rage

The Stealth Wealth Compendium Of Useful Phrases To Protect Your Freedom

Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead

Readers, why do you think people seek so much attention nowadays? Why do people pick fights with others and say stupid things over social media if they still depend on a job to survive? If you want to be famous beyond your circle of people that matter, please explain why. What are some of the positives of being famous over being a nobody?

https://www.financialsamurai.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Be-rich-not-famous.m4a

The post Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Money https://www.financialsamurai.com/be-rich-not-famous/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[ronaldmrashid]

Be Rich, Not Famous: The Joy Of Being A Nobody

When I first started Financial Samurai, I was proud of finally creating something. For too long, I had just followed orders. Yet, I couldn’t tell anybody about my hobby because I was still employed. I was afraid if my employer found out, they’d tell me to shut it down or at the very least, dock my bonus for being unfocused. After all, the site was started in the middle of the financial crisis and they were always looking for reasons to cut costs.

When I finally engineered my layoff three years later in 2012, I still felt it was unwise to tell anybody about my site even though I was internally beaming with pride about the site’s growth. I felt like a new parent who wanted to annoy the crap out of all his friends by cooing about every milestone their child hit.

But because I had five years of deferred compensation on the line, even if there was just a 1% chance my old employer would withhold payment, I didn’t want to risk losing six years of living expenses. And so, I kept my mouth largely shut until I had a decision to make on 4/21/2017, when my last severance-related payment hit my bank account.

In a way, the five-year time period when I was collecting my deferred compensation was like a mental jail. Like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption reaching for the stars as rain spatters his face, full emancipation only came years after leaving Corporate America.

With nothing holding me back in 2017, it would seem like finally, I could brag to everyone that I had created a website large enough to support a family in San Francisco. With some publicity would come growth. But alas, I felt it was much better to keep a low profile.

For those of you who are thirsty for attention, let me share some thoughts about being a nobody for so long and why it may be in your best interest to do the same. 

The Joy Of Being A Nobody

1) You focus on what truly matters. Whenever you create something you’re proud of, there’s a natural tendency to want to tell everybody about your success. Look at me. I am so great! The more you share, the more addicted you become to the attention and the less you focus on the work that made you proud in the first place.

There are people who are trapped in a cyclone of self-validation, e.g., constantly posting selfies of a new look on Twitter, showing off a new car on Facebook, or writing about yet another fabulous vacation on Instagram. Think about it. If your self-esteem is strong, why do you need to tell anybody about anything you do?

We all need some sort of attention or validation. I get it. But moderation is the word. Don’t let such need to be recognized get out of control.

Not being able to publicly disclose I ran Financial Samurai for eight years made me focus on the only thing that mattered to its growth: writing regular content. I couldn’t leverage my network of entrepreneurs and financially savvy folks. I couldn’t leverage my resume. I couldn’t leverage my Asian heritage. Nor could I leverage my fabulous good looks to get on TV (ok, not really).

The only way I could grow was to compete on quality of content. Could I tell an interesting enough story that kept people engaged? Could I write valuable enough content where people could learn and grow their wealth and happiness? Could I write a post so polarizing that it would turn off a bunch of readers, but attract a bunch more because they saw the reality in what I was saying?

These were the challenges that I focused on every single week for years. And due to the focus, this site grew.

2) You become impervious to insults. After you’ve been called a loser, an idiot, a dumb ass, arrogant, out of touch, shameful, a dickhead, a chink, and the many other epithets, your mind turns bulletproof. After all, when you’re already a nobody, nothing can be any lower.

And because I’m a nobody, even the smallest words of kindness are meaningful. Today, I get more joy from a nice response to my private newsletter than I would if I was a public personality being lauded with praise all the time. I also developed the ability to ignore or instantly forget anybody who shows hate. It’s like having the super power of selective amnesia.

Developing a thick skin can really help the relationships that matter most to you. For example, let’s say your husband or wife comes home from work extremely grumpy one day. If you’ve been able to develop a thick skin, you’ll more easily brush off his or her boorishness as a temporary phase.

What’s also interesting is that while insults no longer hurt as much, they still very much act as motivators to keep on going. I often use negative feedback to create new posts, thereby buttressing the survival of Financial Samurai, which in turn allows my family to continue living free.

3) You can live your life in peace. Being famous is a curse. Yet, for some reason, kids seem to have an insatiable desire for worldwide attention. What the hell happened? Is it due to social media or bad parenting or both?

When you’re famous, many people want something from you, mostly your time. And given time is more valuable than money, being known robs you of your most precious asset. Thank goodness I’m not famous. However, FS has grown large enough to where I get emails every single day asking for help without the person ever attempting to build a relationship first. If this scale of inquiry frequency were to transfer into the real world, I probably wouldn’t be able to step out of the house.

For example, one day my friend blew me up while we were soaking in a hot tub after tennis at a club. He asked me, “How is Financial Samurai doing?” in front of five other fellow soakers, and one of them perked up and began asking me at least 10 questions ranging from whether she should buy property to whether she should go back to grad school. She had been a reader of Financial Samurai for three years.

Of course I had to be nice and answer her questions. I’m always honored to meet a long-time reader. But after 2+ hours of grueling tennis, all I wanted to do was soak in the hot tub, drink a beer, and relax.

Now imagine if you were actually famous, and didn’t just have some small-time website. You would never be able to do anything in public in peace. Every single move you make would be questioned. Your words will be twisted to fit an agenda. You’d never be able to be yourself.

4) There are no expectations of you. When you’re a nobody, nobody expects you to do anything or do anything special. Therefore, you can regularly surpass expectations.

As a 5.0 rated tennis player, I’m supposed to readily beat 4.5 rated tennis players. If I do, nobody cares. But if I lose, as I’ve done before, it’s a disaster. I’d much rather be a 3.5 tennis player and beat up on 4.0s, 4.5s, and 5.0s instead. This is why there are so many sandbaggers in any competitive activity.

Think about all the celebrities out there who are expected to always look good in public. What a drag! Most of the time, normal people just want to put on some comfortable clothes after washing their faces, and go for a leisurely walk without anybody taking their picture.

What about if you are a Harvard alumni? You are expected to do great things because you were so great in high school. But the sad reality is, a significant majority of Harvard alumni end up doing the same thing everybody else does in society. What a let down.

It’s no fun having the weight of the world on your shoulders. Life is so much better when you can surprise on the upside and be judged based on what you do.

5) You allow your children to be their own people. I feel sorry for the children of celebrities who find themselves in the limelight because of parental transgressions. Children shouldn’t have to suffer due to the sins of their parents. Nor should children be forced to feel the pressure of matching their parent’s success.

If you’re always posting pictures of your kids who aren’t old enough to consent to public exposure, consider slowing down. You’re exposing them to public scrutiny which they haven’t asked for. Please don’t exploit your children to further your ego or business interests.

Protect them until they are old enough to make rational decisions for themselves.

Be Rich, Not Famous

All this desire for fame and prestige is truly a waste of time. Get your 15 minutes of fame to satisfy your curiosity. Maybe get 30 minutes just to be sure.

Unless you’re a completely insecure person, you’ll realize the attention you seek is really just a band-aid for some deeper problem that needs fixing.

Work on accumulating enough passive income so you never have to listen to anybody again. Accumulate at least 20X your annual expenses in liquid net worth so you can start feeling the joy of financial freedom. The only things that matter are your friends, your family, and your freedom.

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Related:

The Rise Of Stealth Wealth: Ways To Stay Invisible From Society’s Rage

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Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead

Readers, why do you think people seek so much attention nowadays? Why do people pick fights with others and say stupid things over social media if they still depend on a job to survive? If you want to be famous beyond your circle of people that matter, please explain why. What are some of the positives of being famous over being a nobody?

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