Will to power
What we think about our goals in life and what we do at the end is not the same, and since our reality checkers fine-tune active programs using feedback from the real world, we become better at things that we actually do, not just think about.
As intelligent beings, we understand that more resources make it easier to do things. Even the ones who don't fight for a place at the very top of the food chain wouldn't mind getting their own piece of the pie. They always know how to spend it "correctly" and can be bribed easily if we give them a lot of resources with permission to use them however they want.
The process of reinforcing one's behavior of choice by finding and spending more and more resources on it can be perceived as a will to power. It's a common phenomenon, but not fundamental.
We don't have any particular subsystem designed to start this process right away. It comes as a result of a selection among our programs. With time we realize that the ones that fulfill our best expectations tend to require a lot of resources.
Authoritarian power, fame, or great wealth, aren't necessarily the final goals of existence on their own, but rather tools to redirect the flow of resources towards us, and evelate our existing patterns of behavior to a whole new level.
People often say that too much power turns you into a bad person. I would argue that it depends on your perspective. If you had conflicts of interest with your neighbors before you got money, they can turn into a big drama, but if your values were aligned, you'll cooperate like you never did before.
What's interesting for me is that usually, when we think about powerful members of society, we imagine apex predators, yet nobody stops us from investing in prey behavior instead.
It's very awkward to say that you can become better at dread or can find more effective ways to call for pity, but with enough resources on hand you absolutely can. These steps may look irrational to some spectators, but evolution doesn't care about the direction of your behavior as long as it works well.
Despite being slightly counterintuitive, self-preservation is optional in this context. Looking for opportunities to become better at something is not the same as aiming for survival.
Self-development gurus often bring morality on top of this. They say that it's fine to invest in your creativity, but you shouldn't be super lazy or participate in reprisals. Really? This is not how nature works. We're designed to have options. And we need more resources to perfect them.
More!
Much more!