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Two Examples of Windfall Profits Envy |
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Ron has come to see me on and off for over a decade. He is a bright, capable, verbal, and opinionated mid-thirties computer programmer who writes custom software and who runs his own consulting business. He makes an excellent income but has never been able to manage his finances well enough to get free of debt. |
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Ron is an outspoken, self-absorbed workaholic who loves what he does and takes pride in his code-writing skills. Over the years, I have helped him mature from a rather insensitive, awkward, and judgmental man who disdained most social interaction and felt contempt for others into a man who could slowly step outside the insulated bubble of his work and allow himself to fall in love and marry. While he has had few interests outside his work and technology-related gadgetry, he is beginning to find meaning and pleasure in other facets of life that previously held little interest for him. |
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His brother, a few years younger than Ron, was also educated in computer programming. His brother got a very lucky break a few years ago and was hired by one of the big Silicon Valley Internet companies just as it was beginning to take off. He received stock options that, in an incredibly short time, became very valuable and made him wealthy beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Nothing moves faster than the valuation locomotive of the Internet express; Ron's brother was fortunate enough to climb aboard at the beginning of the line and is taking a swift ride with no end in sight. |
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Now, it was one thing for Ron to try and contain his feelings of envy in watching his brother have this windfall drop in his lap by being in the right place at the right time. It was especially tough for him to take that his brother never really had to work all that hard to build a successful consulting business, as Ron did. All he did was join the right company. Since Ron had the computer skills that could have just as easily filled the position that his brother was offered, this made the sting of his brother's windfall even more difficult to handle. |
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When he heard about his brother's stock options, Ron did his best to feel sympathetic joy for his brother's good fortune. At the same time, Ron wondered why he had to work so hard, still be in debt over many years, and shoulder the stress of running his own business, while his brother had stepped into financial heaven. Where was the fairness to it all? Didn't he deserve to step into a great situation like his brother? |
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