Josh Bolinger: Is it Really All About the Money?
How do you attain the ideal amount of money for your happiness?
Is the job you are at going to get you there?
One of my favorite things to do when I meet new people is to ask them what they do for a living, and then ask them what they really want to be doing. The answer is very rarely the same. I like to ask people why they aren’t doing the thing they want to do, why they aren’t using their life the way they want to use it. Often, particularly in the case of people I’m mentoring, the conversation ends with them re-focused on their goals, but keeping focus can be hard.
Why is it so difficult to make a good living? I think that part of it is the fact that it’s almost impossible to get rich working for someone else. And of course, there are a lot of voices in our society that tell you there are tricks and short-cuts, but a lot of that is fool’s gold.
Every day we see celebrities and athletes, people who seem to have found a shortcut, spending money lavishly, fulfilling themselves through consumerism and a party-all-the-time lifestyle. Focusing on these people has two terrible effects. First, it advertises the idea that there are quick and easy routes to success, bur secondly, it gives rise to the idea that when you have wealth, the best way to use it is to blow it all on toys and parties to impress other people with how successful you are.
True entrepreneurs know that the path to wealth and success is hard work at something you really care about, and when they get there, they reinvest. The most wealthy and truly influential people reach a lifestyle plateau, where they feel they have enough personal wealth, and they use the surplus to bring other people along. They support startups, they become venture capitalists, they engage in large-scale philanthropy, and in vest in the world around them.
Of course, the real trick is that helping others find their way up the ladder by investing in startups and education often makes them wealthier than they’d ever imagined.
We raise ourselves up by raising up others.
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7 thoughts on “Is it Really All About the Money?”
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I think having more than one job is the way to go. At least that’s what works for me and it is what I need to do to get ahead.
I have a brother-in-law who is very motivated to make money but not motivated to put in the work to do it. As soon as a job gets hard or he’s not pushing six figures he quits or moves onto something else. We try to tell him that if he want to be successful that he has to put in his time and effort. I’m not a millionaire but I have what i have because I worked for it.
Supporting startups is the way to go for anyone looking to invest in the future of our economy. There are a lot of people with some good ideas that can change the world.
Happiness does go a long way but the key to it is being able to afford what you need and maybe even some of the things that you want. Money will do that and we will always need more of it.
Personally I find the trick is to minimize my daily “needs”. If I can keep my outgoing funds as low as possible, I have more income to invest – and better still, if something does go bad for a few months and I have less income, my lifestyle doesn’t really suffer.
This is just the result of a culture that worships materialism and fawns over celebrities. If people weren’t trying to be famous and have the most toys, they’d find it a lot easier to manage their lifestyle. It’s about values.
I agree, we live in society that is very selfish and bases success on how much money you make. We tend to forget that the values of honesty and being good to your fellow man are what measure true success and happiness.