Muscles are the new status symbol: the new goal of billionaires is to beat themselves up like soldiers

The image of the average multimillionaire has little to do with that of those slicked-back

with flashy suspenders and wide-blade ties who howled on Wall Street.

Nor with that of the latest black-collared-jeans-and-collared-uniformed gurus or college

who followed the money trail to California's Silicon Valley shore.

Regardless of their origin or origin, those who have managed to stay current in the list of the greatest fortunes on the planet now coincide in showing themselves to the world as the 'after' of a miraculous protein shake.

The already qualified (by

as

encompasses a whole string of top-level businessmen and executives who in recent months have radically transformed their bodies and boast of iron abs and hypertrophied biceps on their social networks.

From the aforementioned Amazon founder to moguls in areas like music and gaming, the CEO of 2022 has made the toned physique the new status symbol.

"I have to train more and get in shape."

Not even the fact of being the richest man on the planet has earned Elon Musk, founder of Tesla or SpaceX, to ignore or relativize the criticism received when he was photographed this summer in a swimsuit on a yacht in Mykonos.

As if it were a footballer at the beginning of the preseason, the businessman was asked to give explanations on his Twitter account and make an amendment after the tweeters mocked the poor definition of his torso.

"On the advice of a good friend I have been fasting periodically and feel better," Musk wrote.

On advice of a good friend, I've been fasting periodically & feel healthier

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 28, 2022

No one escapes the fashion of

(the practice of shaming someone for their body).

"I'm going to change the habit of looking at my phone as soon as I get up to start training for at least 20 minutes first," Musk said on the

while acknowledging practicing intermittent fasting and having since lost close to ten kilos.

In his case, the fact that he appeared in the images accompanied by Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood agent turned media mogul and owner of the UFC, who at 61 years old has released iron abs on the occasion of his recent link, did not help either. with fashion designer Sarah Staudinger, 28 years his junior.

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A post shared by Lauren Sanchez (@laurenwsanchez)

Also Jeff Bezos (above these lines), second on the

list of the richest in the world, has made his radical change coincide with a new sentimental stage.

After ending 25 years of marriage to Mackenzie Bezos in 2019, the Amazon CEO blessed her new relationship with reporter Lauren Sanchez with a transformation of her diet and training routine.

Under the tutelage of star trainer Wes Okerson, in whose hands actors such as Tom Cruise or Gerard Butler have also been put, the man now nicknamed

(Mazado Bezos) has achieved that each of his photographs on his vacations in the Caribbean or marking muscle in skintight t-shirts on Instagram become recurring Internet viral.

“There are several macro trends that can explain this phenomenon, such as the rise of our health care or the cult of aesthetics in the multi-screen society.

With the pressure of constantly showing our success, exhibitionism on social networks has a clear narcissistic component”, says Pedro Mir, professor of marketing at ISEM Fashion Business School (University of Navarra).

Their profiles could well serve as a paradigm for what

Robin Sharma coined

in the bestselling book of the same name.

A method –or myth– that ensures that those who set their alarm clock to ring at dawn increase their productivity while improving their health and optimizing their vitality and happiness.

“

the life of a top executive is linked to high levels of stress and a sedentary lifestyle, but with this image they try to show the world that they can do anything and that they are not only doing well in business, but also in other aspects of life.

In some of them this can be increased by the mid-life crisis, but it is still a

taken to the extreme”, adds Mir.

Across the pond, the phenomenon of showing off a figure on social networks extends to all areas of business privilege: Jason Oppenheim, owner of a real estate group specializing in luxury mansions;

Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group and who traveled to space last year at the age of 71;

Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks or Strauss Zelnick, CEO of the video game company Take-Two (responsible, among others, for

or

), are some examples.

Even the historically secretive Mark Zuckerberg has just allowed himself the luxury of posting a video on his Instagram account of him fighting professional mixed martial arts fighter Khai Wu.

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A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck)

The creator of Facebook has stated that his passion for MMA was born as a result of the arrival of covid in our lives, a circumstance that is repeated in several of these cases.

“I think the pandemic and having to work from home created an opportunity for top executives to focus on

,” Cuban told

Roberto Sánchez, image

for managers, confirms to ICON that more and more men in our country are aware of the importance of their appearance in the workplace.

While the relevance of having a well-cared image has historically been demanded and evaluated only from women, now they are also the ones who are concerned with showing the best

possible.

“My recommendation is to be clear about what values ​​we want to transmit in our professional field and adapt our image so that it communicates them instantly”, evokes the advisor.

“According to different studies, a person can get an idea of ​​who you are and what you can contribute to them in the first ten seconds of meeting you.

And the majority weight of that assessment falls on our image”.

That good presence is one of the best ladders to thrive in the professional field, beyond the world of modeling or acting, is a fact ratified by specialists.

The professor of Law and Ethics at Stanford University confirmed in her book

that "good-looking students are considered more intelligent, good-looking teachers are better valued, attractive workers earn more money and politicians with better presence have more votes”.

Although the bulk of these billionaires have made their fortune wearing a more mundane appearance, the tyranny of aesthetics is real and targets us all.

“The body cult phenomenon is not something that only affects millionaire CEOs.

Although in these characters the result can be more sophisticated, society is giving more and more importance to sports, food or beauty treatments”, confirms Mir.

“We all want to be liked and be successful on a personal level: either with a well-worked physique or a romantic relationship,” concludes Roberto Sánchez.

“In the case of these people, who do not have to prove anything since they have achieved everything, much more.

Showing what they have achieved in their networks is a way of rewarding the effort and the ego”.

Nobody is bitter about a

Not even those who created them.

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