A friend shared a great story about NBA superstar Steph Curry. In 2017, Steph Curry had turned in incredible performance after incredible performance to win the NBA title for the Golden State Warriors. However, thanks to a 4 year contract he’d signed in 2012, he was making less than half per season as some of his fellow top NBA players.
When he was asked about this, he said – “One thing my pops always told me is you never count another man’s money. It’s what you’ve got and how you take care of it. And if I’m complaining about $44 million over four years, then I’ve got other issues in my life.”
“My perspective was: ‘Man, I’ll be able to take care of my family with this. Blessed to be able to know I’ll be playing at least in the NBA for four years and see where it goes from there.”
It is easy for us to point to his massive wages and say that it is easy for him to say that. But we are social creatures who compare ourselves to others. It would have been easy for him to put any sense of happiness to death by comparison.
But he didn’t.
His approach reflects an enlightened perspective stemming from a simple and powerful idea – don’t worry about how much other people have.
