Sabotaging the Surplus

What happens when someone wired for survival finally builds a surplus? Logically, they should exhale. In reality? Sometimes they blow it up.

I watch incredibly smart people reach real financial security. And within months, they make an aggressive, unnecessary move. A massive new project. A rapid expansion. A hire they don’t actually need.

You might call it “reinvesting for growth.” But sometimes the numbers tell a different story. Sometimes this isn’t strategy. It’s sabotage.

When your identity is built on putting out fires, peace feels dangerous. A full bank account feels unfamiliar. Stability feels like stagnation.

So you create a new crisis. Just to return to the version of yourself you trust most: the scrappy operator. The problem-solver.

But not every surplus needs to be deployed. Sometimes you don’t need another pivot. You need to stop creating problems to solve. To learn how to sit with the discomfort of things actually working.