Was another the guest of honor at a party? Was another asked for expert counsel? Was another on the cover of Time or People this week? If these are good things, rejoice for the people who got them. If they’re not good things, you shouldn’t mind missing them. Remember that if you don’t do the things others do in chasing after what we can’t control, you’ve got no claim to a piece of that action. If you don’t kowtow to the powerful and flatter them, you can’t expect to get the same rewards as someone who does. You’re unfair and impossible to please if you won’t pay the going price for advantages and think you should get them for nothing.

What’s the price of a hamburger? A dollar, say. If someone else pays her dollar and gets her hamburger, and you don’t, she’s no better off than you – she has her hamburger, and you still have the dollar you didn’t give.

There’s no free dinner, either. If you weren’t asked to a dinner party, you didn’t buy your invitation with the currency the host sells them for: attention and praise. Pay the price, if it serves a purpose for you. But if you want to withhold the praise and still get the invitation, you’re a fool. If you don’t buy, what do you have? The pleasure of not having flattered, and exemption from having to endure the airs that the host puts on.