Why Money Will Never Be Enough

In this episode of The Fuck It Shift, Adam Ross talks about the trap of chasing money and why it rarely leads to real fulfillment.

Looking back on his younger years, Adam explains how many people believe success is defined by expensive things, higher salaries, and status. But over time, he realized that when money becomes the main goal, it often comes at the cost of values, standards, and long-term satisfaction.

The conversation explores why building a strong foundation—your beliefs, values, and personal standards—matters far more than chasing the next paycheck, and how focusing on growth and contribution can ultimately lead to both fulfillment and financial success.

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LinkedIn: Adam Ross

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Fuck It Chip Podcast. I am Adam and I'm joined by Jay as usual. Jay, what do you have for me?

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Adam, what's something younger you would be shocked you no longer care about?

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I don't care about monetary things. I don't care about objects the same way I probably did when I was younger, or probably you do now. You're 18, 20, and you're thinking that a watch makes a difference, a car makes a difference. We talked about this in a previous episode. Yes, there are times that you spoil yourself, there are times that you reward yourself, there are times you drive nice things, have nice stuff. But I think when you're young, you think that those things are the thing. They are the success. And I will I'll challenge you to think a little bit differently because when you get to a certain level in life, you realize the power of money and what money can do, and you start opting out of the super expensive things. It becomes a satisfaction, which I never would have got my head around when I was younger, but there's a satisfaction that you can buy something and you choose not to. You choose to do something else with the money. You choose to do something else with the uh influence you have. And that is the real measure of success. It's not the expense of alcohol, it's not the booths, it's not going to clubs, getting on private planes. The people that are doing those things actually can afford those 10 times. It is when you get to the level where that is a convenience and not a not a clout, not something you're doing for clout or for social media content, that's when you've quote unquote made it. And when I was younger, I would have thought that the car made the difference. If I only had this, if I only had a Porsche, if I only had a Ferrari, but when you can get to those levels, you realize that you can do other things. And I think that's a real power shift that you go through. And I would have gone through when I was younger.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

So you used to chase money when you were younger, and that's kind of what led you to the rock bottom, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, I think young people chase money today, and that's all they focus on. If they could be an influencer, they'd make, they'd make so much money. There's a lot of posts that tell you the math behind you only need a hundred followers, and you only need to sell them a really expensive uh product or an expensive program or expensive coaching program, and you're gonna make money and you won't have to do a lot of work and you can travel the world. And all that sounds fucking amazing. But it's like the 1% of people that actually make it. And then the the chasing that you do, you chase the money and don't realize that the content is work. That to have that, to really have a good product, to really have a good coaching system is work. It's experience. What am I buying a sales playbook off of somebody in their 20s who hasn't been in the industry long enough to sell anything?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

What's wrong with chasing money?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Uh when you chase money, you change your standards. You're not aligned, like we talked about previously. You're not aligned with the brand, the leadership. You're only chasing the dollar figure. And guess what, people, when you chase the dollar figure and it's in a company, the second you're deemed not useful or not aligned, you're gone. So you made a leap. People make this mistake all the time. I'm gonna go from company A to company B for$10,000 more. Do you know how to do math? Even with the$10,000 or more and the different tax bracket, that's less than$500 a month extra. And what did you give up? When you chase money, you're rarely successful. When you focus on standards, being good to people, being grateful, being focused, taking risks that are calculated, trying to find ways to practice what you've been taught, to learn, to level up. The income will follow. We said this in a previous podcast. You put the income first in your life and you make concessions on everything around it, you will be you'll never be happy. Because can I tell you that when you make a hundred grand, you want to make 200. When you make 200, you want to make 500. You'll never be satisfied. So you'll spend your entire life chasing shit that's not satisfying. And that's why you should never chase the money.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I once read a quote that said something like, He's so poor, all he has is money. And I think that if you chase money, and tell me if this is true or not, you can actually get it. But if that's all you have, there's no joy or, like you said, happiness in your life. So are you saying to what should we be chasing as a, let's say a young 20-year-old? What should our complete focus be at that time to um? I wouldn't say that maybe they're not in rock bottom yet, because can you actually be in rock bottom at 16 to 20? Maybe, depending on your definition of that. But at that age, what should somebody be chasing?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Should have an incredibly strong foundation in faith. That should be your first thing that you should be building because when you think about your perfect life and your perfect quote unquote social house, how you want your family to be run, how you want to raise your kids, if you want to have kids, how you want your partner and you to interact with one another. And it doesn't have to be Bible-faced or based faith, but you have to have some sort of faith, some sort of belief system, some sort of basement to build your values on. What are your values? What are your faith? What are your non-negotiables? What are you willing to accept in life? And what are your standards that you will not settle for less? When you have those concrete income, status, job, what you want to do for a living, what partner you want to be with, who you want to align with, how you want to raise your kids, all of these things start building different layers of your social house. And without a good, strong foundation and faith and standards and what you believe in and what you stand for, you won't grow. And here's the shitty part when you're super young, you're not sure of all of those things. And they, you have to give yourself permission that some of those things can shift and they can change. But you have to have a bare ass minimum line of what you have, what you're willing to accept in terms of standards. Forget the money, build your standards first as a young person, and then you'll start to build levels on top of that. And when that foundation is rock solid and shit hits the fan because it's going to in life, nobody gets a free ride, nobody has a playbook on how to do life perfectly. Nobody does it perfectly. So when imperfection pops up, your foundation has to be rock solid. Your standards have to be rock solid. And don't beg for something to believe in when shit hits the fan. Have something to believe in before it happens.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Let me throw you on the spot here, which I like to do on this podcast. Um, and now I'm pretending that I am a 25, 26-year-old whose career path is not really that great. I've got two kids. I'm listening to this podcast and I hear you say, forget the money. How can I forget the money when I need the money to eat, to clothe my kids, to do all the things? I think you know what I'm trying to say. When you're in a position where you can forget the money, what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 7:58

You need to hear, you need to, you need to believe that money is everywhere. If you're worried about the money, you have a scarcity mindset. And when you have a scarcity mindset, it'll always be hard to get. I know that you can't wish for a bag of money to fall into your lap, be delivered to your front door by Uber. But I can tell you that money really truly is everywhere. Even in this economy, in this political environment, with things that are happening, there are still new opportunities. There are still new ways of earning. But if you don't have any baseline, if you don't have any things that you can believe in, align with, the money's not going to matter. That's the message. No matter any amount of money won't be worth sucking at a job or going to a job you hate or trying to get something off the ground and you don't get enough followers, so you pack it in because you don't have any commitment and you don't have any standards. That's the message. The message isn't forget about money. We all need to get money to exchange for goods andor services. I'm not naive to that. But what I'm telling you is that if you only make those choices based on that money or on that income level, you'll never be fulfilled.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

What's that Jim Curry quote? Something like, I wish everybody could get rich and famous so they can realize that it's not worth it.

unknown 9:26

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:27

It's uh it's all uh, you know, be careful what you ask for. There's a lot of lonely people with money. I know you're not going to believe that. I said in a previous podcast, money only makes problems a minor inconvenience instead of stopping you dead in your tracks. I don't have all the money in the world. I don't have all the answers in the world, but I have learned some pretty tough lessons. And every time I tried to chase the money, it never worked out. I was never fulfilled. I was doing something for a paycheck. It happened time and time again until I realized I'm not fulfilled because I have no standards. I have no baseline which to measure which any what an income even means to me. If there's anything you get out of it, it's that I need you to start investing in yourself and then others will invest in you. Until next time, nothing shifts until you say, fuck it.