7 Difficult Skills That DON'T Pay Off Forever
The longest journey a person can take is the 20 inches from their head to their heart
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We crave instant gratification — get rich quick, effortless weight loss, finding happiness through gimmicks. The promise of bypassing the grind is enticing, like bingeing a show instead of patiently awaiting each new episode. However, real wealth — of purpose, wellbeing, and finances — comes from cultivation, not shortcuts.
Since this post resonated with so many people (embedded one), I wanted to offer a different perspective by creating an opposite.
So Today we’ll look at 7 difficult skills that appear attractive but ultimately don’t pay off. These seductive mirages promise everything while delivering nothing of substance.
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle
1. Chasing Get-Rich-Quick Fantasies
“I’ve got a great money-making scheme that’s legal, legitimate, and fails about 98 percent of the time.” — Billionaire Charlie Munger (referring to most get-rich-quick gambits)
Who wouldn’t love to wake up tomorrow as a millionaire? Just stumble into the right lucky crypto play, win big in Vegas, or fall into an inheritance from a wealthy distant relative you didn’t know existed.
This insatiable lust for overnight riches fuels an entire industry of hollow fantasies. Social media gurus selling their latest million-dollar formulas. Emails from the deposed prince of Nigeria looking to transfer funds to your account. (Lol)
We all know these are too good to be true at some level. We see the reality show family holding up oversized novelty checks — not the thousands of folks whose dreams were dashed.
Las Vegas wasn’t built on winning bets.
Pursuing get-rich-quick schemes is likely the fastest route to GET-POOR-QUICK.
Aside from the high probability of total capital loss, you’ll also forfeit developing any skills that can accrue real wealth over time.
2. Worshipping The Cult of Hustle Porn
Our social streams are clogged with motivational gurus preaching the gospel of “hustling 24/7” and “sleep is for the weak.” The underlying dogma sells a simple path:
Work harder than everyone. Grind yourself down until you DROP. Success will have no choice but to find you!
But does endless hustle really equal progress? Are the people evangelizing 20-hour workdays for years on end practicing what they preach — or just slinging inspo-quotes?
Working hard is essential — don’t get me wrong. But conflating productivity with pushing yourself to the brink of burnout is delusional.
I once fell victim to this same cult mentality. I’d wake up at 5 AM, push through on multiple side projects after my day job, then burn the midnight oil trying to capitalize on each second of the day. What was the end result?
Complete and total burnout.
My work quality nose-dived. Concentration became impossible. Health issues started flaring up from lack of sleep, exercise, and recreation. I was a shell of myself — even when I cracked triple digits on the weekly hour count.
Hard work matters, but sustainable peak performance requires working SMARTER.
Else you’ll break before the finish line. Top performers prioritize work-life balance and integration — not endless grind.
3. Rigid Planning for an Uncertain World
As sentient beings, we crave control and predictability. It’s only natural to want to plan for the future and remove uncertainty from the equation.
Hence the rise of productivity systems and life planning tactics. If we just block schedule our days into obedience, map out our lives in a series of steps, and adhere rigidly to the program — sureness success is assured, right?
Not even close.
The universe is boundless, chaotic, and forever evolving. No amount of plans or schedules can possibly encompass every variable, obstacle or serendipitous opportunity lurking around the corner.
Just look at your life trajectory so far if you’re being honest. How many of the biggest moments — positive or negative — could you have foreseen a few years prior? That unexpected career opportunity, or sudden personal setback? Probably none of them.
Flexibility is difficult but non-negotiable.
Now, having a broad vision and thoughtful preparation is prudent. But clinging to a fixed vision too tightly is a recipe for becoming obsolete — or worse, missing your greatest calling.
4. People Pleasing and Self-Abandonment
Refusing to abandon ourselves in pursuit of others’ visions for our lives is one of the most difficult skills we’ll ever develop. But it’s a prerequisite to any authentic fulfillment — wealth, recognition, or otherwise.
From an early age, we’re indoctrinated to “fit in” and follow predefined societal norms. Common influence scripts like:
“This is how a good student/son/employee/citizen behaves…” “If you just get good grades/job/house/family, you’ll be happy…” “Don’t rock the boat or you’ll pay the price…”
So many well-intentioned people build entire lives in service of these limiting frames, abandoning their authentic interests and callings out of obligation and fear.
Eventually, they wake up one day filled with remorse. The life they’ve lived looks disturbingly unlike the dreams they once envisioned for themselves.
Many find themselves on a path paved by societal expectations rather than internal callings. They attend prestigious schools and secure respectable corporate jobs, working grueling 60–80 hour weeks in pursuit of promotions and status. The rewards? A generous paycheck, an impressive title, and all the trappings of an upper-middle class lifestyle.
This often comes at a steep cost — sacrificing health, hobbies, relationships, and any sense of creative expression or purpose beyond simply earning a living. A pivotal quarter-life crisis may strike in one’s late 20s. Despite being surrounded by nice material possessions in their glossy apartment, they feel utterly devoid of aliveness inside. The sobering realization hits — if they continue down this road for 30 more years, “WOULD THIS BE MY LEGACY?”
Start owning YOUR path.
“The longest journey a person can take is the 20 inches from their head to their heart.” — Lao Tzu
5. Greedy Goal-Setting Without Introspection
I vividly remember setting “reaching a six-figure income” as a key early driver for me, because making boatloads of money equaled “success” from everything I absorbed growing up.
But I gradually realized money alone was never my Musk. Greater financial flexibility to invest time/energy into creative pursuits that fueled me — THAT was my actual priority.
Rushing after hollow goals divorced from our deepest truth? That’s the fast-track to living a life we don’t even recognize.
Detaching from societal programming to re-examine our deepest personal “why” is an immensely valuable and difficult skill we often overlook.
Does amassing billions or titles truly energize you? Or is it the freedom, security and options greater resources provide?
How about social media status symbols like fancy cars or travel? Perhaps the real want is new experiences that expand perspective.
6. Chasing Shiny Objects and Bright Squirrels
Think about how much time and mental energy is subsumed by:
Constantly debating the latest tiny particulars of crypto/NFT/AI invest-o-mania
Being lured by the latest TikTok/YouTube/Instagram marketing craze
Feeling FOMO paralysis when encountering the new new hot new IT Startup thing
Buying course after course with the promise of that final missing puzzle piece
All the while, our greatest successes lie in steadily cultivating skills via patient, focused craft over years or decades.
Humanity has been battling shiny object syndrome since our earliest hunting-and-gathering days on the savanna.
The grass-covered horizon blurred while sprinting after that bright butterfly. Only for a fresh distraction to capture our caveperson's attention — squirrels! Then that rustling over there! And so on, always restless, persistent focus elusive.
Distraction remains the dream killer to this day. Except the dopamine loops now come in endless digital varieties — endless apps, services, games, and flashing shiny objects tailor-made to hijack our lizard brains.
Defending your priorities against “bright squirrel” distractions and shiny gizmo peddlers? That’s a superpower.
7. Feeding the Comparison Game
“The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.”
Ever notice how it’s easiest to appreciate abundance from a distance — then gut-punch yourself for not measuring up to some outside benchmark?
Comparing our “normal” behind-the-scenes lives to PUBLIC personas carefully edited for maximum aspiration is a recipe for misery.
Yet all of us invariably get mired in contrast traps, wondering why we “only” have some lower tier stash of money/clout/accolades/happiness compared to “that person” over there crushing it.
The truth is, pretty much all of us are relatively wealthy compared to global medians. We’re literally among the most abundant humans in the modern world.
Can you imagine how fortunate most of us reading this are? Can you envision how dark and miserable life might have been in the early days (the darkest ages of humanity)? Your ancestors went through that to make you who you are today, and yet you compare yourself with some random dips* on the internet and get brainwashed by these people? (Sorry for being straightforward, but this a truth for so many people)
The Journey Is The Reward
So there you have it — 7 difficult skills that seem enticing on the surface, but ultimately fail to pay off in meaningful ways.
Safe journeys, my friends. May we cross paths again down the road, a little wiser, a little tougher, and infinitely more alive.