Sunday, August 9, 2020
An Apple Watch Wont Give You More Time
An Apple Watch Wont Give You More Time A friend recently emailed me to communicate the buyerâs remorse he was experiencing after purchasing an expensive watch. Even though heâs a successful entrepreneur who can afford to drop $10,000 on shiny wrist-ornamentation, he expressed pangs of post-purchase grief, sorrow, and regret. He wasnât entirely sure why he felt this way, so he emailed me for advice. This is how I responded I know where youâre coming fromâ"as a guy who has owned several expensive watches (I owned more than one fancy watch during my lotus-eating twenties, although I donât own one now), I understand the allure. I could, of course, recite a dozen platitudes hereâ"an expensive watch canât give you more time, a puppet who enjoys his strings still isnât free, you are not the sum of your material possessions, our possessions possess us, etc.â"but it comes down to two things: Value and Quality of Life. In terms of Value, does the watch actually add value to your life, or does it drain value? Iâm not talking about monetary value (price is an arbitrary measurement); Iâm talking real, intrinsic value. Is that watch worth $10,000 of your freedom? Is it worth the emotional stress youâre going through while thinking about it? I know these questions sound rhetorical, but theyâre not. Iâm currently wearing a $100 pair of jeans, and, yes, they are worth $100 of my freedom to me. They are also my only pair of jeans, therefore I get immense value from them since I wear them almost every day. Does the watch do the same for you? If so, wear it with pride. If it doesnât, then ask yourself why you still own itâ"not why you bought it, but why you still own it. Is it a status thing? Is it part of your identity? Is it just an expensive personal logo? At this point, the purchase is overâ"you neednât beat yourself up over it because you canât change it: itâs a sunk cost. But you can change what you do going forward if youâre not getting value from the purchase. If you get value from the watchâ"if it truly enhances your lifeâ"then why not keep it? And when it comes to Quality of Life, you need to consider how the watch adds to the quality of your life. I used to earn about $200,000 a year at the peak of my corporate days, but I was miserable. My Quality of Life was poor. Last year, however, at age 31, I made $27,000, which is actually less than I earned at eighteen. But with that $27,000 I still saved more than Iâve ever saved, paid off the rest of my debt, traveled more than Iâve ever traveled, and experienced lifeâ"real lifeâ"more than ever before. Though I make a multiplicity of millions less than the corporate big wigs I once aspired to be, and though I bring home roughly 1/8 of what I used to bring home at my pinnacle, I have an appreciably higher Quality of Life than most CEOs and my former self. Very few material possessions could enhance that Quality of Life; in fact, most would take away from it. I obviously cannot and will not tell you what to do with your shiny timepiece. What I can tell you is Iâm much happier without my expensive watches. Who needs to know the time all the time anyway? Note: We originally published a different version of this essay a few years ago under the title A Rolex Wont Give You More Time, but, with the release of the new Apple Watch, this missive seems as relevant as ever.
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