It's About Creating Wealth

I am reading an amazing series of books that is changing my perspective on money, perhaps for good and all. The consensus of these books, and the consensus of the people I am meeting in the process of setting up The First Habit, LLC, is that money is just a tool. It’s difficult to do things in the world without at least some of it, but at the bottom line, it’s no more than a way to acquire stuff. And “stuff” won’t make you happy, ever – not even a LOT of stuff.

Think of the “curse of the lottery” – so many people pinning their hopes on a huge wad of cash, only to be ruined after a relatively short time. Or dead. Money does not buy happiness. Money does not buy peace. Money does not buy contentment. Money buys stuff.

So what DOES buy happiness? Wealth. And from what I can tell, the distinction between “money” and “Wealth” is a matter of what’s happening between your ears.

Think of the many monetarily-challenged people who are happy and content. What’s their Secret? While it’s true that people below subsistence levels in lands that are challenged by weather and other natural catastrophes could hardly be considered happy, there are examples of people at subsistence levels of existence who exhibit profound joy. The difference, as far as I can tell, is an attitude, a way of thinking, a set of meanings assigned to one’s circumstances that creates Wealth – regardless of financial situation.

Back to the consensus of the books in my library: A life based on solid, universal principles buys happiness. It is relatively easy to come into a windfall of money, even at the odds of the Lottery. But building a life based on eternal principles like Honesty, Integrity, Open-mindedness, Compassion, Community, Generosity, Courage, Persistence, Self-Discipline, Commitment, Love, Forgiveness, Patience – THIS is the basis of a life that brings peace and joy. And, perhaps unfortunately for many, this is far more difficult than amassing a monetary fortune. It takes a lifetime of intentional effort, practice, and gradual progress toward ideals that are (in their ultimate form) unattainable in this life.

How can the pursuit of the unattainable possibly bring joy? At first glance (to a perfectionist such as myself), such a pursuit seems overwhelming, painful, dreary, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Again, we’re back to meanings. In the profound book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, his experience in a concentration camp during WWII provides a clue. He compared the experiences (and survival rates) of people confined with him in a concentration camp, and came to understand a very important distinction: The survival of prisoners depended on the meanings they attached to their confinement – their attitudes. A quote: "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." In Frankl’s case, his own survival is attributed to a deeply seated conviction that he must survive this ordeal to make sure that it would never be forgotten, and that it never happened again. He quotes Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how."

Sound familiar? “You cannot piss me off unless I decide to let you piss me off.” It’s about personal responsibility, and the ability of our amazing minds to choose the meaning of any given situation.

I can decide that spending a life based on chasing after impossible, unreachable ideals is a dreary burden. Or, I can decide that the process of practicing these ideals, as flawed and incomplete as it is, is actually the goal: the joyful work of a life filled with meaning and purpose. And from Frankl’s example, it seems that having a life with meaning and purpose is a key distinction between those who survive catastrophe with grace and power, and those who resign themselves (or relegate themselves) to misery and defeat.

It’s not about the money – it’s about creating true wealth – a life lived well, full of meaning and purpose, based on the pursuit of powerful eternal principles that make life truly satisfying. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is the building of an edifice that will leave an expanding legacy of joy and peace and satisfaction long after we’re gone. And that’s what I’m about.

In the next post, I’ll talk a little bit more about wealth, and the library that I’m creating. It will be reading that is highly recommended, and my hope is that it will help others shake up their thinking as mine has been shaken, to its foundation.