You Don't Get Fewer Problems. You Get Better Ones.
By Derek Neighbors on November 12, 2025
I remember landing my company’s first multi-million dollar contract. I was ecstatic. This was it. We’d made it.
Then I hired a dozen people to deliver on it.
Suddenly I was dealing with payroll and healthcare benefits on a scale that held way more weight than anything I’d handled before. Every pay period wasn’t just about whether I could cover my own bills anymore. It was about whether twelve families could cover theirs.
The weight was different. Heavier. More complex.
My first reaction was frustration. I thought success was supposed to solve my problems.
Then it hit me: It did solve my problems. I wasn’t worried about getting clients anymore. I wasn’t worried about making my own rent. Those problems were gone.
These were different problems. Better problems.
You’re not failing because you still have problems. You’re winning because your problems got more interesting.
The Lie We All Believe
We chase success thinking it means arrival. Hit this revenue number and relax. Make this salary and breathe. Reach this position and coast.
The ancient Greeks understood something we’ve forgotten. Eudaimonia, human flourishing, isn’t about escaping difficulty. It’s about developing the capacity to handle increasingly complex challenges.
Better problems are those requiring more complex virtues, affecting more people, and demanding greater character capacity. Better not because they’re more important, but because they develop more sophisticated responses.
Success doesn’t reduce your problems. It upgrades them.
Where Everyone Starts: Survival Problems
Most people begin with straightforward survival problems.
Can’t pay rent. Can’t afford food. No healthcare. No stability. Can’t plan beyond next week.
At this level, you genuinely believe that solving these problems means reaching the promised land. You tell yourself, “If I just had stability, I’d be fine. If I just made $X, I could breathe.”
The solutions are relatively straightforward. More money solves most of it. Get the job. Make the sale. Pay the bills.
And you dream about the day when you’re past this. When you’ve “figured it out” and successful people have.
Here’s what nobody tells you: Those successful people didn’t figure it out. They just graduated to different problems.
The Climb: How Problems Transform
Watch how this actually works:
What makes problems “higher level”? Three things: the scope of impact (how many people are affected), the complexity of virtue required (what character capacities you must develop), and the weight of consequence (what’s at stake if you fail). Each level multiplies all three.
From Level 1 to Level 2:
You solve the rent problem. New problem emerges: Should I buy or rent? It’s the same domain, housing, but with higher complexity. Now you need to understand markets, mortgages, long-term planning. The decision requires different capabilities.
From Level 2 to Level 3:
You build some wealth. New problem: How do I invest it wisely? How do I protect it? How do I use it in alignment with my values?
The shift moves from acquisition to stewardship. Mistakes at this level have larger consequences. You’re not just managing scarcity anymore. You’re managing abundance.
From Level 3 to Level 4:
You build a team or organization. New problem: How do I ensure their families are taken care of? How do I create an environment where they can flourish?
The stakes multiply with every person depending on you. The problems shift from personal to collective responsibility.
Epictetus wrote that it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. He understood that the weight of responsibility changes, but the character required to handle it must grow proportionally.
Each problem virtuously solved creates space for new complexity. The problem is the opportunity. The virtuous response is what develops capacity. Your capacity increases with each challenge met with excellence. What once seemed impossible becomes your baseline. New problems demand new character development.
The Greek concept of arete, excellence, demands we continually stretch toward our potential. Comfortable problems don’t forge excellence. Better problems do.
Where Excellence Takes You: Advanced Problems
Plato described what he called the philosopher-king problem in The Republic. The most capable people carry the heaviest burden of responsibility. Their central question becomes: “How do I serve the collective good when I could serve myself?”
This is a better problem than “Can I survive?” But it’s not an easier problem.
This is mature understanding. Success equals problem transformation, not elimination. Better problems are evidence of growth. The weight increases, but so does capacity.
Seneca wrote
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a person perfected without trials.
He knew the trials never stop coming. They just get more interesting.
Look at the evolution:
From “Can I pay my bills?” to “How do I build generational wealth?”
From “Will anyone hire me?” to “Who should I hire and how do I develop them?”
From “Can I survive?” to “What legacy am I building?”
From “Do I matter?” to “How do I serve what matters?”
Marcus Aurelius had the “problem” of leading Rome. He could have seen this as an unbearable burden. Instead, he saw it as his highest calling, the problem worthy of his life’s energy.
That’s the shift. Not escaping problems. Earning better ones.
How It All Fits Together
Here’s what matters: The hierarchy isn’t moral. It’s developmental.
Beginner problems aren’t lesser problems. They’re appropriate problems for that stage. Advanced problems aren’t superior problems. They’re different problems requiring different capacity.
Each level requires different character strengths. You can’t skip levels. Every lottery winner who went broke proves this. Money without the capacity to handle money-level problems is just temporary cushioning before the collapse.
Your current problems show where you are. Your capacity to handle them shows who you’re becoming.
Here’s what matters: The problem level doesn’t matter as much as we think. What matters is meeting problems at ANY level with virtue. The entrepreneur worried about payroll needs the same excellence of character the graduate student worried about rent needs. Different circumstances, same virtue demanded.
Wishing for fewer problems is wishing for less growth. Accepting better problems is accepting eudaimonia - the flourishing life the Greeks described.
Aristotle argued in Nicomachean Ethics that excellence comes from doing excellent things, not from achieving comfort. Better problems give you better opportunities for excellence.
The Recognition You Need
Stop feeling guilty about having problems.
Stop thinking success means problem-free living.
Start seeing better problems as evidence of progress.
Start developing capacity for the next level.
Because here’s the truth: Are you ready for better problems? They’re coming whether you’re ready or not. Your growth demands them. Your potential requires them.
The ancient wisdom applied:
Eudaimonia isn’t comfort. It’s flourishing through challenge.
Arete isn’t achievement. It’s excellence in response to difficulty.
Your problems will never end. But they can get gloriously better.
If you’re frustrated that success didn’t eliminate your problems, you misunderstood success. You solved those problems. These new ones? They’re the prize, not the punishment.
Final Thoughts
Look at your current problems honestly. Not with shame. With recognition.
They’re evidence of where you’ve climbed. They show you’ve solved previous levels. They prove you’re playing at a higher tier than you were.
The entrepreneur worried about scaling already proved they could build something worth scaling. The leader concerned about culture already solved personal performance. The parent stressed about college already raised a child to 18.
Your problem level is your development level.
Stop comparing your current problems to someone else’s old ones. Start developing the capacity for your next ones.
The weight never lightens. Your ability to carry it grows.
That’s not burden. That’s eudaimonia. That’s the flourishing life.
The problems you face today will change. The character you build facing them is what lasts. These problem hierarchies exist in the material world, pointing toward eternal truth: human souls develop capacity through challenge, regardless of the specific challenges faced.
Building the capacity to handle better problems requires daily discipline and community support. That’s why we built MasteryLab, a space for people committed to developing character equal to their ambitions. Join us in embracing the climb.
