Level Normalisation
Spend time at the wealth level above yours to make the next step feel inevitable
Level Normalisation is Armoo's deliberate practice of spending time with people operating at a wealth level one tier above his current one. When he was a multi-million-pound founder, he forced himself to socialise with founders who had sold for hundreds of millions. Hearing those people discuss private jet trips as casual decisions recalibrated his own sense of what was proportionate — not by copying their spending, but by reducing the psychological distance between his current position and the next one.
The mechanism exploits social comparison in a controlled, intentional direction. Rather than comparing downward (which produces complacency) or upward compulsively (which produces envy), the technique uses upward exposure selectively to normalise the next level's behaviour — making it feel achievable rather than alien.
Armoo applies the same logic to comfort with spending. When he understood that his £25,000 Bali trip was a small fraction of his million-pound cash pile rather than an alarming sum, he could make the decision calmly. Level Normalisation creates that proportional awareness by regular exposure to how people at the next tier think and act.
- Comfort with wealth is determined more by social reference point than by the absolute number in your account.
- Deliberate upward exposure normalises the next level — making it feel achievable rather than intimidating or reckless.
- The technique calibrates proportionality: what is a large number in isolation is a small fraction in context.
- Normalisation works in one direction only — it must be used to build comfort, not to accelerate a comparison treadmill.
- The goal is to feel at home at your current level, not to perpetually chase the level above.
- Identify the next wealth tier above yoursDefine concretely what the next level looks like: if you have sold a business for tens of millions, the next tier is hundreds of millions. Be specific enough that you can identify real people operating at that level who you could access.Pro tipDon't define the next tier by net worth alone — define it by behaviours, decisions, and comfort levels. You want to observe how people at that level think, not just what they own.
- Spend structured time with people at that levelArrange regular, genuine social or professional interactions with people at the tier above. The goal is not networking for deals but exposure to their frame of reference — how they weigh decisions, what feels proportionate, what they worry about.Pro tipArmoo explicitly says he 'forced' himself to hang out with 200m+ founders. It required deliberate effort, not passive hope that it would happen.WarningAvoid environments where upward exposure produces only comparison and envy rather than calibration. If the interaction leaves you feeling behind rather than oriented, adjust the setting.
- Translate their proportionality to your own balance sheetAfter exposure sessions, translate what feels proportionate at their level back to your own position. If they consider a £30k trip unremarkable relative to their assets, calculate what an equivalent proportion looks like against your own net worth.Pro tipArmoo did this explicitly: seeing a £25k Bali trip as a small fraction of a million-pound cash pile rather than as a large standalone number changed the decision from fearful to rational.
- Stop before the comparison treadmill startsLevel Normalisation has a hard stopping condition: once you feel at home at your current level, stop using upward comparison. The moment it shifts from 'I can be comfortable at my level' to 'I need to reach their level,' you are on the hedonic treadmill.Pro tipArmoo's £200m friend was miserable because someone had done a billion. That is the failure mode. The technique ends when comfort is achieved — not when you catch up.WarningThis is the most commonly violated boundary in the framework. Normalisation that converts to comparison is net-negative for wellbeing.
After selling Fanbytes, Armoo deliberately sought out founders who had sold for hundreds of millions. Hearing them discuss £30k private jet trips as routine decisions recalibrated his own sense of proportion — if they could hold that wealth and feel at home, so could he.
Armoo recounts a friend who sold his company for £200 million after twelve years of work. Despite taking home approximately £160 million, the friend immediately referenced someone who had sold for a billion.
After the Fanbytes exit, Armoo was reluctant to spend £25,000 on first-class flights and resorts to Bali. He forced himself to spend time with founders who had sold for hundreds of millions — people for whom a £30,000 private jet trip was an unremarkable line item. That exposure didn't change his net worth, but it changed his reference point. Seeing the Bali trip as a small fraction of his actual assets — made viscerally real by the cash-in-hand exercise — unlocked a healthier relationship with spending. He also cites the danger of the technique's inverse: a friend who sold for £200 million was still miserable because someone else had sold for a billion. Normalisation works when it calibrates comfort, not when it escalates comparison.