I don’t think it’s a good attitude in your life to feel that you have to be rich to have self-esteem.

Petty rejects the idea that personal worth should be measured by wealth. The quote frames “having to be rich” as a psychological burden—an attitude that turns self-esteem into something externally purchased rather than internally grounded. Implicitly, it critiques consumer culture and status anxiety: if esteem depends on money, it becomes perpetually unstable, because wealth is comparative and can be lost. Coming from a musician who rose from modest beginnings to fame, the remark also reads as a warning about confusing success with identity. The significance lies in its ethical emphasis: dignity and confidence are portrayed as human qualities, not financial outcomes.