One of the cruelest realities that people will come to face is that while money is finite, humans were never supposed to live without wants. I believe that there is a reason why all natural resources are limited. The world is made up of 70% water, yet we can’t drink it all. Even if you live in the ocean, you still won’t be able to drink the water there. A tree could give you access to the best fruits, but even that is limited, because eventually, the fruit will go out of season.
At every moment of our lives, we’re meant to always fight or work towards something. It could be the next meal, the next payday, the next big project… and these things are not meant to be easy. They are designed to be slow and leveled. They build anticipation and hope, so that by the time we get them, they hold meaning while also giving us space to want more things.
Now, I’m not saying that humans are meant to suffer, I’m just saying that having easy access to everything quickly takes the meaning out of life because it gives you nothing else to strive toward. We work hard for money, so we can get a form of stability. But when that stability comes, what next? We work to keep being stable, but how long can we go on? How long until we get tired of the routine of our stable lives and we need something more stimulating?
I just thought to myself that, if I should wake up one morning and I’m 400 billion dollars rich, what am I going to do with all that money? That’s more money than one man can spend in a lifetime. Life totally transforms, and with a snap of a finger, I can get anything I want. Buying private jets, buying islands, going to space, doing whatever I want. But for how long?
Every morning, we wake up and go out into the world to hustle to feed and provide for our families. Basically, we just need money to do that. But what happens when you have more money than your family will ever need? Enough that they can eat breakfast in one country and have lunch in the next, even choose to take their bath in another corner of the universe. All that is easily done. But then, now that you don’t have something like work or money to drive you anymore, what will you do with the rest of your life?
Travel? Within five years, you’d have covered the entire world. Thrill seeker? You wanna go to space, skydive, or go to the bottom of the ocean? Okay… but soon, even that will lose its charm. What else? You could spend it with family, but they’ll also be trying to make sense of their own lives as well. You could try spending it with friends, but with you being worth 400 billion dollars, you would have to wonder who your friend and who is just there for the handout.
Life basically becomes transactional because you can pay whatever price is asked of you. Sometimes, you hear about how people with money make others do some pretty nasty things, things that are outright disgusting. And how did they get them to agree? By making them an offer they couldn’t refuse. By giving them an amount that they had never seen before.
Look at it like this: a billionaire could give someone 10 million dollars, and that will totally transform the person’s life. But for the billionaire, it would be like a drop of water from his pool. He won’t even feel it. They see it the same way you see those pesky charges that banks take from your money. You notice its absence, but it’s not enough to have any major significant impact to your finances. That’s how it is.
And when these guys are depraved and sick in the head, they know that they have an entire playground of people who will be willing to jump through hoops just to make them happy, all for the money. And somehow, that’s how scandals are born. Not that the poor don’t have scandals of their own, but we see firsthand how access and money can bring to life, even the most depraved kinks people can imagine. And it’s scary.
So, what am I saying? Is it that I don’t want to get rich? I’d definitely love to be rich someday. I’m just saying that I don’t want my entire goal and purpose in life to be making money. So that when I’ve made all the money in the world, I’d have nothing else to drive me. That’s what scares me the most, having nothing to look forward to, or nothing new to try out, simply because I’ve done it all.
I wanna get rich, but I also want to have a fulfilled life. Is that too much to ask?
