Dave

When I hear someone say, “Chase money, not six-packs,” I hear more than a preference. I hear a philosophy of life, and often, a rather impoverished one. A six-pack is not the objective. It is a visible consequence of discipline, physical fitness and relatively low body fat. It is one of the many signals that someone has chosen to take care of their body. And that matters because health is wealth. There is little value in accumulating money you are too sick to enjoy. Many people have spent years chasing wealth only to spend their fortunes trying to buy back the health they neglected while making it. The false dichotomy between money and fitness is intellectually lazy. You can build wealth and build your body. You can pursue financial freedom while maintaining physical discipline. In fact, the same qualities that build a strong body, consistency, delayed gratification, discipline and self-control, are often the very qualities required to build anything meaningful in life. What is more revealing is the mentality behind the statement. Some people don't merely reject fitness; they need to ridicule it to rationalise their own lack of discipline. They turn physical neglect into a philosophy and then pretend it is wisdom. And there is often another contradiction hiding underneath it: “Don't chase six-packs, chase money.” For what? Status? Validation? Women? Social approval? If you are going to condemn people for pursuing physical attractiveness while spending your entire life pursuing financial status for the same validation, the contradiction is obvious. Your priorities reveal your values. How you treat your body, your money, your relationships and your responsibilities tells me far more about your character than the motivational slogans you repeat. So no, I don't take “chase money, not six-packs” as profound wisdom. More often, it sounds like someone trying to intellectualise indiscipline. Build the body. Build the mind. Build the wealth. Build the character. You don't have to choose.

The more relationships become primarily driven by financial status, the more societies drift toward polygyny. For the record, polygamy is the umbrella term. Polygyny refers to one man with multiple wives, while polyandry refers to one woman with multiple husbands. When wealth becomes the dominant criterion for mate selection, a relatively small number of affluent men can attract a disproportionate share of potential mates, while many men with fewer resources struggle to form relationships. That creates an increasingly unequal dating and marriage market. When wealth becomes the ticket to intimacy, a handful of wealthy men accumulate more and more mates, while an increasing number of ordinary men are shut out of the relationship market. Society pretends this has no consequences but it does. The men at the top accumulate more mates. The men at the bottom accumulate more frustration. If young men are taught that access to love, sex, and family is bought rather than built, don't be surprised when some pursue wealth at any cost. Some will work harder. Others will cheat, steal, defraud, or embrace other destructive paths because they believe money is the only currency that matters. You can already see just what people are willing to do just to get the money. Are you surprised to see the rise in the number of sharp boys? And more? I am not. It is all in the patterns. Every society is shaped by the incentives it rewards. Kenya is not heading in that direction. Kenya is already living it.