You Can’t Buy A Person Who Doesn’t Put A Value On Happiness

I want to say that the following conversation was not the reason that date went sour, but in reality, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We were absolute strangers—we had met on the street a week before—getting to know one another over drinks at the local coffee shop. Maybe the reason we didn’t hit it off was because of the way he checked his phone every other minute or the way he felt the need to talk me through his resume, but mostly I think it was the way he talked to me about success.

As we sat by the window in the July sun attempting to find common ground of any kind, a bright yellow Lamborghini drove past. This prompted an immediate subject shift—he proudly announced that one day he too would be so successful he would drive around in a brightly-colored Lamborghini, just so everyone would know that he had money.

Of course, this was the real dividing point between us, for two reasons really: for one, I personally think that Lamborghinis look a lot like oversized bananas (especially in yellow); and two, I don’t believe you have to prove to the world that you are successful.

I’m not saying that I won’t work hard to be able to make money to afford the things I like.

I’m saying that I will work to achieve a lifestyle that makes me happy, whatever that life looks like.

I feel that success should be about what makes a person happy, not about what that life looks like to someone on the outside.
For someone like me, there’s no point in buying a handbag or a jacket just because everyone else has it, just to prove that you can afford it to. Things are only worth having if you genuinely like them.

People like me don’t want a first date to insist on the fanciest restaurant in town just because they have a high-powered job, we’d rather do something simple if it’s meaningful.

At the end of the day, you can’t buy a person who doesn’t put a price on happiness.

So to that guy from last July, go ahead and buy that banana Lambo if you please. But don’t buy it so that your neighbors will know that you finally hit it big, buy it because you like the way the motor hums or way it hugs every curve of the highway.

Buy it because it makes you happy.