life · perspective · January 20, 2026
why I want to be rich and powerful?
this is a reminder to myself first. I will need to come back to this.
when life gets comfortable, the hunger fades quietly. things are okay. the pressure lifts. slowly, without noticing, average starts to feel acceptable. this is the most dangerous place to be.
the problem with staying average
most people are taught that wanting power is arrogance. that wanting wealth is greed. that the humble thing, the good thing, is to want little and be grateful for it.
I disagree.
staying average is not humility. for people who can see what is wrong and have the ability to change it, staying average is a choice to let the wrong thing continue. it is comfort dressed up as virtue.
the Bhagavad Gita has a word for this. it calls righteous action dharma. this might sound like ego talking, I'll come to the subjectivity of all of this.
wealth and power are the battlefield of our time.
why it matters who holds power
look at any system where hierarchy rules - politics, government, institutions, armies. the people at the top do not just make decisions for themselves. they make decisions for everyone below them. their values, their blind spots, their self-interest or lack of it - all of it flows downward.
power in the wrong hands does not just fail to do good. it actively makes it harder for good to happen. it protects itself. it builds systems that keep the unrighteous in and the righteous out.
and this does not only apply to career. it applies to family, relationships, society - every structure where someone has more influence than someone else.
when you see something wrong happening around you, or anywhere in the world, and your heart sinks and you think - wish I could do something about it - then you'll get me.
this is why I love technology. it is one of the few domains left where quality can win on its own. where a good idea built well can reach millions of people without asking anyone's permission. where deserving is not filtered through who you know or what you were born into. tech is not perfect but it is fairer than most alternatives.
it is all relative. that is the point.
power and money are not fixed things. they depend entirely on the frame of reference.
you might think I am just a employed designer. why I'm talking about all this. my boss would consider me powerless and poor. but… he is also not Elon Musk. you see, very relative. Elon Musk is not the most powerful human who has ever existed. everyone is both powerful and powerless depending on where you stand. we help and have the right influence wherever we can.
the point is not to reach some absolute version of rich and powerful. the point is to keep expanding the frame of reference. to keep doing the right thing, taking action, and trusting that the frame grows with time. that is what karma actually means in practice. the Gita puts it simply: you have the right to perform your duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. do the work. let the frame expand.
people will call this endless chasing moha-maya. attachment to things that do not last.
they are not entirely wrong.
but there is a version of the chase that has a purpose beyond itself. the sacrifices it demands, the discomfort it requires, the times it has pulled me through difficulty when comfort would have meant stopping, that is not nothing.
I am not chasing wealth and power for their own sake. I am chasing the ability to do more than I currently can. to build things at a scale that matters. to expand the frame of reference enough that the things I see going wrong, I can actually do something about.
that is worth the sacrifice.
at least until I have a better reason to stop believing it.
heads down. working.
not to collect the things society decided success looks like. not to hit the goals people worked hard for and quietly forgot about. but to get to a position where the right thing is actually possible to do.
that is the only finish line worth running toward.
and if I get comfortable before I get there, I hope I read this again.