Good post and also lost on the pyramid..
It's a faze everyone goes through in the beginning. The reason I mention this is when people get this out of their system and truly understand the depths, you don't want to get caught up in this pimp wannabe player mentality. You leave that for the deviants, homely fucks, or old dudes trying to relive the vestiges of their wasted geek youths.
Now it's all about making/saving the money. If I wanted I could buy whatever car I wanted within reason. I still drive around my Titan truck I bought in 2006 because in the last 5 years I've put a whopping 28k miles on it and it still runs great. I'm in my mid 40's and haven't cut my hair in years and rarely shave and look like "The Dude". I wear the same type of clothes everyday, carhartt jeans, t-shirts, hoodie, i've had for years. I literally have a room full of nice clothes the wife bought with points from a Nordstrom CC. I just don't wear them.
I recently went to a watch repair shop to get an expensive watch I bought back in the day, tuned because it was sitting so long. The guy looks at the watch, then looks at me and says, where did you manage to get this? When I paid with my Gold Amex card he checked my ID and then asked if there was anything else "Sir", I'd would need? Clown.
I own a few nice properties, but my favorite is a fishing shack with 10 acres in South Louisiana that I bought at auction for almost nothing. I gutted the house myself and rebuilt it with a boat-dock right up to the back of my house. The lake the house sits on thousands of miles of waterways and fishing is spectacular. My neighbors are crazy honest Cajuns who always have a smile on their face and always up to something fun. Total cost? $165k and you couldn't find a happier place to live.
Could I afford a bigger better house? Absolutely, but why? The bottom line is what makes you happy. I grew up in a very wealthy area in Calabasas California, where you show off what you got. WTS, when most kids were looking forward to getting their drivers license, I was hanging out in TJ/Ensenada doing massive rails of coke, surfing, fucking hookers, betting on donkey (she can always swallow the whole thing) shows for weeks at a time.
The point is, i've made my great money in this business, far more then I ever deserved, but if you have to buy in to a perception of pimp, player, wannabe, you're a tool that's going to turn fool real fast. You don't need to network in this business to make money unless you're talentless poser and when you do make it, they'll just send you cheques to get your attention.