i need to be alive, with food, shelter, nourishment to be happy.
i need money to be alive, to have food, shelter, nourishment.
i need a job to have money.
i need to work hard to have and keep a job.
at some point, this becomes:
i want to be better than most, if not all people, by whatever measure comes to mind.
i need a really nice apartment, awesome gadgets/clothes/sound system/food to be in this "above average" group.
i need lots of money to get all these awesome things.
i need to work really, really hard to make sure i continue to be really well paid, because, well, i couldn't live without my awesome things. i don't need to be more popular/respected/rich, i suppose, but well, actually, that's the point of my life. i'm not a mediocre person, i'm an awesome, one-of-a-kind, definitely way-above-average kind of guy.
maybe, the actual issue is we like to be awesome at the things that don't matter so much, and end up being mediocre or below-average at the things that matter.
and what matters now? some possibilities here.
