You’re Probably Doing Better Than You Think
Jeremy Hix · RizeCon 2026 · Pocatello
Jeremy Hix got back to Pocatello at 2:00 a.m. the morning of his talk. The night before, he had taken his son — the one who spent two years in Argentina watching Messi’s home country win the World Cup — to see Inter Miami play Real Salt Lake. Messi had five or six shots on goal and didn’t score. The whole crowd, including the Real fans, was rooting for him anyway. Jeremy got almost no sleep and walked into a room full of people who had just heard James Clarke talk about giving away $60 million, and he decided to talk about something different.
Not the gap between where you are and where James Clarke is. The question underneath that — why do some people end up rich and miserable and some end up rich and happy? — and what the pattern actually looks like when you examine it. And then, because he had about five minutes left and 20 slides he didn’t use, the practical framework for why businesses stall and what actually moves them forward.
What he covered
Comparison is the death of joy. Jeremy opened by naming what he suspected half the room was feeling after a keynote from someone who has generated billions in enterprise value: the creeping sense that you haven’t done enough. His antidote: go back through your own photos, year by year, and look at what you actually did. Cool trips. Things built. Moments that mattered. “I actually have done some pretty cool things” is the thought he was reaching for — not as false comfort, but as accurate accounting.
Rich and happy vs. rich and miserable.
Jeremy asked the room directly: how many of you know someone who is very wealthy and deeply unhappy? Then: how many of you know someone who is wealthy and genuinely happy? The pattern he and James Clarke both pointed to: the people who end up satisfied are the ones who use their resources to give to other people. Not the ones who accumulate them. The gas station story was Jeremy’s proof of concept — he filled up the tank of a music teacher in a Scooby-Doo van whose card wasn’t working. It cost him $15. It meant nothing to his finances and something to her morning. He almost drove away. He’s glad he didn’t.
