on jumping through hoops

Bertrand Russell said that after survival needs are met, people desire only four things: stuff, attention, status, and power. Stuff is money and what it can buy. The need for attention is what drives the behavior of actors, rock stars, etc. Status is what you get by proving you are better than someone else. Power is the ability to make people do things they don't want to do. 

Everyone is in a social hierarchy. Your position in it is based on your status. Generally, you gain status by jumping through hoops, that is, completing tasks, often ones that are needlessly difficult. For example, the members of the military with the highest status (generals, fighter pilots, Navy SEALs, etc.) are the ones who completed the longest and most difficult courses. Because the tasks are hard, few complete them, and as such the ones who do have higher status because there are fewer of them. 

In a similar way, doctors and lawyers have more status than cooks or drivers because the former must go through much more training and there far fewer of them. 

So why do people desire status? I think it is mainly because it is a good way to fulfill the other three desires. Billionaires and celebrities have an easy time getting stuff, attention, and power. Prisoners and homeless people do not. An old saying goes that money and power always find each other. Another one guys that men lose money if they chase women, but they never lose women if they chase money. 

It all boils down to knowledge. Seek that instead of jumping through hoops.