Stop and think for a minute about the envy behind this statement. Something good happened to this guy, but in his mind, it wasn’t good enough because he knew there were other people who received more. Who receives $3.6 million and gets angry about it? People who want to live what I call an Instagram life versus a real life.

If we’re living a real life, we’ve gained the understanding that getting more doesn’t always lead to feeling happier. In an Instagram life, we’re instead focused on making it look like we have a better life than everyone else. But even as we take our own pictures and apply filters to our world, we’re flipping through other people’s photo streams and feeling envious about what we see. We ask, “Why isn’t that our life?” It’s a hard cycle to break because, as my friend pointed out, someone will always come along at some point and be better than you.

The model Cameron Russell explored a similar disconnect in her TEDx talk about modeling. As she noted, even though models have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair, they’re also the most insecure people you’ll ever meet because they’re always judged by their looks. According to Ms. Russell, a woman who started modeling at 16, she is insecure because she has to think constantly about what she looks like. So, even as we envy the beautiful people, perhaps they’re envying us for looking average.

Let’s go back to the ex-trader for a minute. He goes on to share in his op-ed how he eventually realized that his envy and addiction to wealth were hurting him, and he left his job. The decision didn’t come easily. Having had a lot of money, he feared walking away from making more. But luckily, he found a way to leave his old life for a new one, even though it doesn’t come with seven-figure bonuses. He broke the cycle of envy and discovered what actually made him happy, and it turns out it has very little to do with what the guy next to him earned as a bonus.

He also believes that wealth itself isn’t the issue, but whether people are capable of believing they have “enough.” But, on Wall Street, as he notes, “that sense of ‘enough’ is rare.”