Why do some people who seem to have it all, keep messing it up?

Question

Take Britney - money, husband, kids .... then disaster.
That's one example ... there are so many where people who seem to have it all end up addicted to drugs or divorced or bankrupt. Where did they go wrong. Most people dream of having their riches and opportunities and some people throw it all away. Why do you think this is?

Answer 1

Because the thing that has been motivating them for years has been achieved. The work is done. Its finished so they fall in to the vacumn that was their driving force.

Thats why a lot of people get badly depressed after passing exams. Note I said 'passing'. Mothers get depressed after baby arrives.

We need purpose in life. Like the man said 'Success is in the journey and not the destination'.

Answer 2

The answer to this question lies in an psychological 'entity' which controls all human behaviour to some degree or another.

It is called the ego and it is the main reason for self destructive behaviour. The ego's base need is 'more'. It does not care what form this 'more' takes, it just knows that it needs it. It creates a sense of insignificance in all human beings which needs be filled.

If you have a basic life with food and housing your next need will be social relationships and recognition.

Once you have this the ego might try to fill its hole with wealth or love.

Once it has this, the ego will be satisfied for a while but soon the intrinsic insignificance which lies at the heart of the ego will inevitably return. The love that you found, the person who you thought would make you feel special and needed will no longer behave in the way the ego likes and jealousy or possesiveness will take control. The money will buy nice things but they will cease to satisfy anymore.

Eventually the ego will resume its futile and endless search for 'more'. And what more can you have when you already have it all.

It will filll it with more bizzare and dangerous forms of fulfillment - strange sex, love affairs, drugs, funfairs in your garden, gay relationships, desperate attention seeking strategies, adopting african children etc etc. This will ultimately lead to the downfall and destruction of the egos host.

But do not despair for there can be an end to this frantic and desperate search. By dissolving your ego, by no longer being controlled by it but by being controlled by the power of presence, of being. This is a whole new area which would take several pages to explain so I won't here but the above gives a general summary.

Answer 3

Good question.

One of two reasons, from what I see...

1. They never had to work to get all the success. Thus "Easy come easy go". No idea of the responsibilities which comes with riches. They never learnt what it is like to go without. So they don't really appreciate what they have. This applies to people who lived this kind of unrealistic lifestyle from a very young age, AND family not explaining the responsibilities to them. Hence you hear of squandering the family fortune.

2. I suspect you are really talking about people who were suddenly thrust into the spotlight, like Britney Spears. What kind of life did she have before she became famous? Not rich, that's for sure. Suddenly she has all the fame and fortune. She (And people like her) was probably overwhelmed with all the sudden attention and wealth. she did not know what to do with it, not being used to it, you see. surrounded by giddy headed people who think it is extremely important to "live the life of a famous person" and spend accordingly. Leading such an unrealistic lifestyle will only make things worse for the person, psychologically. some resort to drink, drugs or other addictions, to escape from the unrealism, which only makes things worse.

Some people are lucky enough not to get fame get to their heads.
they are the ones who will not mess things up. This is because they are grounded in reality.

Once you lose touch with reality, that's it.

Answer 4

Britney fell in love and let her heart rule her head and the rest is history.

Alot of the time we don't know we are wasting or ruining our lives until its too late. We are discontented or unhappy and do something that we believe is going to be life changing as the mind plays tricks and then reality bites. It happens when people do not keep their feet firmly planted on the ground and for other reasons. I think this happens to everyone though and no everyone who is successful loses it.

I can understand why people with money waste it but those that can't afford or are poor end up on drugs.

Answer 5

DO THEY,? or is that your interpretation on a story from the media that is already geared up to build em ,so they can knock them down. i remember a story on a comedian who had had rave revues ,he was the big next thing, when he was interviewed he made the point that he had been in the business for over thirty years
but according to the press he was the overnight success,the comedian said it was the longest overnight success he had ever heard of. celebrities are by definition made in the press, they are people, not machines, and people make mistakes, and it does not matter how much money you have, you can still be an assess rear end. LF

Answer 6

Money and fame go hand in hand with these traits as they do not lead realistic lives like us for example I can't buy a new house just like that. I mean they have earnt their wealth, but they have sacrificed their world to satisfy the world of the music masses. I do feel sorry for them but this is also part of the capitalistic world that we live in. We are not numbers we are free men or are we???????

Answer 7

ask Jack Whittaker. A West Virginia millionaire who then won the largest powerball jackpot in history... Within two years, his grand-daughter died of a drug overdose, her boyfriend too, and he was robbed several times, and arrested for DUI. Blew tons of money in strip clubs, etc.

Money and fame seem only to magnify our existing personality traits, not change them. Britney was trailer trash before she was famous, and now she's just "bigger" trailer trash.

Answer 8

We never learn to value good things we have come to possess. More often than not people squander away money received from inheritance or a lottery. Unless we have worked really hard to get something, we are unable to value our having it.

Answer 9

Well, they certainly have more of an opportunity to indulge themselves in things that people who are broke don't have. that aside, I don't think statistically there is any difference between rich or poor who mess up.

Answer 10

They did not "have it all" in the first place what was missing in their make up is what makes them crash in the final analysis,when success comes too quickly and easily it sometimes unsettles those who cannot handle it . They become social wrecks because they were not prepared for it.