Realistically Ideal

Ideally, I would want to drive a bespoke Ferrari around a race track designed to suit my needs, probably on the lines of what the Dutch billionaire Ascari has built. A combination of some of the best chicanes, corners and a long straight where I can take the car to it's absolute limit. After setting a blistering lap time, I would want to enjoy a nice Tiramisu (in keeping with the Italian theme) from a personal chef and consult my trainer to burn out the damage done by all the calories gained. 

When I think about this, it appears extremely materialistic at first. That I am ignoring the world's problems and thinking about myself and myself alone. A racetrack would mean cutting down of trees and relocation of many of the less fortunate. Not to mention all the fuel, wasted food etc.,

However, this is exactly the kind of life that company's try to portray in one's mind. That the next purchase will ensure attention, exclusivity and announce your arrival to the world. They say that they are cramming their best technologies into a package so thin and light, that you hardly knew it was possible or existed. However, over the course of the product's lifecycle, they find ample scope to launch iterations and leave behind early adopters at a pace faster than gaining new customers. Now, there are couple of problems with this whole flagship theory for me. For starters, such ideal use case scenarios are very hard to come by in real world. Not to mention, if all you do is drive around or keep dreaming of doing it, little work is done, which means, you probably cannot afford the dream anyway. Not to be a cynic - I would encourage everyone to dream big, but my suggestion is not to get carried away by all of this hype. Buying into an expensive product sounds very good and is probably an excellent way to show off at a party or over at your mate's brunch. But, for all practical scenarios though, it is hard to see the point. 

In this less that perfect world, we must understand that roads are not ideal and neither are fellow motorists. Aspiring for and owning a super bike is great, but when you sit down to really think on how often we would be using it, that's a different story altogether. Though you promise yourself a ride every weekend, the reality is that this frequency reduces over time. It might not having anything to do with your passion; please I'm not questioning such things! But as a realist, my thought is that such ideal scenrios are far and few. If these few moments make the ownership truly special to you and make you feel like spending the additional moolah, well, you're one lucky chap (I don't know what is chap for women, so please excuse me)!

Instead, what I would do is buy into something that can be used everyday. I need not have to probably suit up to ride it. Or even worry too much when left to the elements. In a nutshell, it should not be the all consuming possession. That way, I can kit it out with everything I want. Play around with components and not break my bank. With the money saved, I would go on those road trips I always planned on rather than worry too much about how the roads would affect my bike/car. 

The same goes to the other accesories that you take for your trip, such as your camera. It is anyway known that the best camera is the one that you have with you. So instead of getting hung up on specifications, lens quality, etc., first go out there and start taking pictures. The rest will follow suit. 

This is definitely not to discourage anyone from dreaming big or suggest that flagship bikes/cars are not worth your money. All I'm saying is that there is little in the way of exclusivity. Rather than having exclusive goods, why not have exclusive experiences? Think about it.