Entrepreneurial Spirit: Wealth, riches, the myth and the truth
September 14, 2006 – 5:54 pm
I see a lot of people from many various avenues of life all angling for the same thing. Their catch phrase is standard “I wanna be rich” to which I reply “Don’t we all”. The question is what does it mean to truly be rich? Does it mean that you have as much money as Bill Gates or Warren Buffet?
So many people are so worry about the outcome and nearly no one in the general public is interested in the journey. Life is a journey, becoming wealthy is a journey because at what point do you say, “I am rich now!” Is it when you have a million dollars in the bank? Does it mean that you make $10,000 a month in profits?
Wealth instead of Riches
Do you want wealth or to be rich? Being rich can be temporary but wealth is eternal. First to illustrate the point let me define and constant the differences between wealth and riches.
What is Wealth?
Definition of Wealth: (Buckminster Fuller) wealth is a person’s ability to survive so many days on the money on hand. If you stopped working today, how long would you survive? Wealth is not net worth since that worth often includes those “liabilities” like cars, boats, homes, or jewelry. The ultimate wealth is enough money to enable you to work for money or not work at all.
Pardon the RDPD (Rich Dad Poor Dad) references that I am sure are littered through-out there
What is Rich?
Rich is really a subjective term because it is only measurable when you compare yourself to the next guy or girl in line. “How much are you worth?” worth again is another subjective term because I don’t know about you but I am worth everything to me, “I am priceless”.
Putting a dollar value on your personal worth is just about as hard as putting a value on your net worth because of things like depreciation, inflation, exchange rates, market conditions, perceived value of assets and liabilities just to name a few things. These usually aren’t fixed rates; they are always in flux depending on the day.
If Wealth is the Journey…Being Rich is the destination
I think that wealth and riches go hand in hand. Saying that you are rich is merely an endpoint really or is it? Could you always have more money? Of course you can. Can you always have more things? Sure! Can you have more time? No! Slaving away at a dream and turning it into reality can be a good thing, sure, but remember that wealth and riches are a journey and the destination in the end may be retirement or death it just depends on why and how long you want to work towards wealth or how long you have to.
TV seems to dictate what is fashionable to society
TV really is “king” these days I think. With shows like The Apprentice, How wants to be a millionaire? and countless others people are fixed on the vision of the all high and mighty dollar. Take a look at your TV and see what comes on sometime. You’d be surprised by paying attention to the overall message.
Ask yourself this question. “Is what I am doing in my professional life an extension of something I saw in a movie or on TV?”
So many people fantasize about becoming rich. If there was ever a bigger illusion that people bought into it may be “vanity” but for this article we’ll go with being rich. Sure the allure of it is great. You’ve got more money then you know what to do with so you go and do stupid things like buying an H3 Hummer and a million dollar home.
The message is simple in the end… In your business pursuits, stay true and keep your integrity!
Define your version of success
Recently as a business owner I’ve started to define what “success” means to me. After all, if you want something that seems unattainable you have to first define it and the rest will fall into place over time. Think about what you value most for starters. Do you value being able to spend time with your family over the years ahead? Do you value fancy toys like Sports Cars, large homes, etc? This is different for everyone but just write a list.
Next write a paragraph (or more) on how you plan to get there. Revisit this plan over time and make the changes that you need to it because over time your priorities will change as well. Envision yourself and your dreams (manifest your destiny to quote Steve Pavlina) and how you plan on getting there.
Lastly… keep it simple. If your plans are too complex then dumb them down because remember, simple always works, it may not look too pretty but it’s workable.
Reclaim your Soul
As you start to work towards your plans you’ll start to realize that things are becoming attainable. Even if it starts small, it will get you excited, and as grows over time your excitement and confidence will rise as well. I personally take a longer approach towards building a business system, it takes work, time and should be fun. If you aren’t getting anything personally rewarding from it then you probably won’t keep doing it for 10 to 15 years or longer. Remember, you don’t need to be a millionaire tomorrow. Besides that, not too many people will care in the long run if you are a millionaire and the people who do you’ll want to stay away from because they’ll only want to know you because you have money. I’d much rather have friends and good people around me because they want to be there and not because they are looking for a hand-out.
Lucas
Business Philosopher