The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The Status Fiend:
As social animals we humans are very sensitive to
our rank and position within any group. We can measure our status by
the attention and respect we receive. We are constantly monitoring
differences and comparing ourselves with others. But for some people
status is more than a way of measuring social position—it is the most
important determinant of their self-worth. You will notice such fiends
by the questions they ask about how much money you make, whether
you own your home, what kind of neighborhood it’s in, whether you
occasionally fly business class, and all of the other petty things that
they can use as points of comparison. If you are of a higher social
status than they are, they will conceal their envy by appearing to
admire your success. But if you are a peer or happen to work with
them, they will be sniffing for any sign of favoritism or privileges they
don’t have, and they will attack you in underhanded ways,
undermining your position within the group.
For baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson (b. 1946), his Yankee
teammate Graig Nettles fit this type. To Jackson, Nettles seemed
extremely attentive to the credit and accolades others were getting that
he was not. He was always discussing and comparing salaries. What
embittered Nettles was the size of Jackson’s salary and the attention he
got from the media. Jackson had earned the salary and attention he
received through his batting prowess and colorful personality, but the
envious Nettles saw it differently. He thought Jackson simply knew
how to play the media and cozy up to the Yankees owner George
Steinbrenner. Jackson, he decided, was a manipulator. His envy leaked
out in wicked jokes at Jackson’s expense, poisonous praise, and hostile
looks. He turned much of the Yankee clubhouse against Jackson and
made his life miserable. As Jackson wrote of him in his autobiography,
“I always had the feeling he was behind me, ready to turn the knife.”
He also felt there was some tacit racism in Nettles’s envy, as if a black
athlete could not possibly earn a salary that much larger than his own.
Recognize status fiends by how they reduce everything to material
considerations. When they comment on the clothes you wear or the car
you drive, they seem to focus on the money these things must have
cost, and as they talk about such things, you will notice something
childish in their demeanor, as if they were reliving a family drama in
which they felt cheated by a sibling who had something better. Don’t

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be fooled by their driving an older car or dressing shabbily. These types
will often try to assert their status in the opposite direction, by being
the consummate monk, the idealistic hippie, while secretly yearning
for the luxuries they cannot get through hard work. If you are around
such types, try to downplay or conceal what you have that might
trigger envy, and talk up their possessions, skills, and status in
whatever way you can.