[tomhoward]

I’ve noticed in some people that if they get rich and stop working day-to-day, they can go off the rails due to not needing to align their behaviour with the needs/expectations of other “ordinary” people - colleagues, employees, customers, suppliers, etc.

I’ve seen it happen with people who made a lot of money in cryptocurrency and then didn’t need to work anymore, sometimes with disastrous consequences (broken families, spiralling psychotic episodes).

I used to find Tony Hseih inspiring, since I saw him speak at a conference in 2009 when Zappos was at its peak.

But over time he seemed to develop a messiah complex, and with all that money combined with the loss of the anchor to normality that comes with having conventional responsibilities, it just spiraled out of control. It’s very sad.

There were times in my life where I was becoming a bit unhinged - egotistical, even a bit messianic at times. In the end I just couldn’t afford to keep going like that; I wasn’t rich and needed to work so had to figure out how to get onto a healthy path. I now count myself super lucky I never had a big financial windfall before I was forced to go through that process; I could easily have gone down a very bad path if I’d had that.

[thr0amay]

I'm in my late twenties. Not extremely wealthy, but wealthy enough that I do not work or ever need to worry about money. I think a part of the messiah complex comes from guilt. The guilt and feelings of responsibility that "I'm very fortunate so I need to do more for the world (and only I can do it!)". It starts out innocuous but it can become toxic very quickly, especially when combined with some ideological or political component as you stop viewing people as people and it just becomes about maximizing some metric.

Your point about day-to-day "ordinary people" interactions helping to align behavior is crucial. Besides a few close friends, most of my friends do not know of my financial situation. For work, I just say I do freelance consulting since that explains no employer and flexible hours. This does make me feel dishonest and disconnected from them, though. The only thing keeping me anchored to reality is keeping to a "normal" life as that's the only constraint to me going haywire like Tony did. Having regular friends is the only reference point to reality I have.

[TomMasz]

Something definitely happens to people when they become extremely rich. No one will say "no" to them for fear of reprisal. Most of us encounter limits on what we can do, not enough time/money/political power/etc., and it really seems like those limits keep us sane. Once we lose those limits, or believe we've lost them, bad things can happen.

[macNchz]

I think–the way societies often have social norms around potentially harmful things–this reality is a significant driver of social norms among "old money" families with generational wealth. In those circles there is social pressure to not to talk about money, to not spend ostentatiously, and to socialize your children together at specific boarding schools and universities where they will be among others who share these values.