The glamorization of wealth has set off most of us on a path where money comes above all. If you’ve got a load full of cash and a bunch of credit cards in your pocket; anyone’s bound to think of themselves as the king or queen of the world. Do you need a nice villa near Miami? You’ve got it! Want to buy a Valentino gown off the racks? Consider it done!
Needless to say wealth even with all its advantages and perks come with a long list of cons. For instance; in the race of collecting as much wealth as we can, we do forget that money can’t really conquer everything in the world. Sure, wealth can turn the table in a lot of matters, but is there really something that no money can buy? Despite the comfort and convenience money can promise, is it really the key that unlocks everything?
Affection
As much as the importance of wealth in this fast-paced world would like you to believe, not everything can be purchased. The most important one out of all those abstract things is perhaps, love and affection. Whether it’s the affection you give or receive from a partner, your parents, siblings, or your friends. One can’t really put on a price on real affection. Affection is an intimate phenomenon, one that doesn’t rely on the financial principle of giving or taking hard cash. More or less it relies on real human emotions and the human capability of sharing a bond stronger than anything else in the world. Forging a bond of affection requires; time, sincerity, and faith. When you’ve invested none of these abstract concepts to yield love in someone’s heart; how can you expect to receive something as pure as love in return.
As much as many of us would like to believe that money attracts love; they’ll always find out that the truth is quite the opposite. The only difference is that they learn the truth the hard way and when they understand the baseless importance of money in this matter, it’s too late. What money can buy; is fake love & affection. It’s a kind of affection that doesn’t last long. Just like the fickle nature of money, such fickle affection also fades away one day. If someone’s affection towards you relies on the number of zeroes in your bank account, perhaps the situation is very self-explanatory.
Empathy
How can anyone ever purchase something that’s innately not present in their soul? You can’t possibly purchase an emotion like empathy. Roaming around in the city you’ll surely come across some extremely merciless people on the regular. These are the folks that simply can’t show any regard for the homeless and the needy. These are the same people that roam around you pretending to be your friends but aren’t empathetic enough to grab your hand when you’re falling into a pit of despair. Empathy is ingrained in most human beings’ and animal’s souls. Thus only a chosen few, lack this innately present quality and you can’t really buy your way into being a kinder individual.
Purpose
Having a purpose in life is one of the biggest essentialities. It’s the reason you badly need to wake up every morning and put in the work. An aimless man can never turn around his life for the better or survive in this world in the long run. That’s why all of us are in search of a purpose. Purpose comes from within you. It’s not something that a parental figure or a peer can suggest to you.
Of course, you can extract inspiration from the ones that inspire you, you can realign your wishes according to the career counseling sessions you’re attending. But, there’s still a big chance that those inspiring ideas, just aren’t “you”. Your purpose in life can lead you to money, but it’s never the other way around. As stated earlier, a purpose comes from within you and only you can discover it on your own through life’s experiences and by putting in some time.
Satisfaction
There isn’t enough money to satisfy a greedy individual. If a guy has $10, he’s going to find a way to multiply it and turn it into $30. Then he’s going to want more considering how his heart and brain are never satisfied with what he has. This game’s going to continue as long as it can and he’ll never be satisfied because he’s always looking for what’s ahead. It’s in every human’s nature, we’re rarely satisfied with what we have and we always want what we still lack.
Even if you think that becoming a millionaire would satisfy your heart; you’re only fooling yourself. By the time you reach that stage you’re heart’s going to want more and your eyes would be on the title of a “billionaire”. Satisfaction comes from within and one’s got to put in manual efforts to curb urges for something more. You can’t possibly count on your wealth to diminish your need for more money. The cycle continues until you sit down and find the power within you to satisfy your instincts.
Time
Of course, any affluent man can use the money to buy someone’s favor and in return grab a hold of a few hours. Struggling to fix an interview with a prospective investor? Just spend a few bucks on his private assistant and you’ve got yourself some due diligent time. Yet, when we say that time can’t be bought by money, we’re more or less referring to the time that has already passed. We’re referring to the time you lost while your attention was diverted towards the urge to grab as much money as you could. You can’t turn back time.
It’s impossible to return to the past based on the credit you own and make up for the precious hours you’ve missed out on. If only one could use the money to make up for the missed childhood of their children or to make up for the mistakes they’ve committed against the people they hold close on their hearts. You can’t fix a bad choice you made in the past and use the money you have to fix that one life-changing bad choice. What if you spent your entire life dedicated to the cause of grabbing as much wealth as you could but now you don’t have enough time to enjoy that wealth? You can’t extend your life by riding on the backs of a few cheques.
Additionally, if you’ve wasted away your health in the chase for this greedy cause, how can you give yourself more time now and fix things up. You’ve got to live your life one day at a time and moment-by-moment. Yes, you’re going to have more comfort and facilities as compared to a poor man of your age. Yet, you’re both probably going to die around the same age as our life starts fading away on its own from the moment we step into this world. Time fades away, it heals, it’s fickle, it’s temporary but it never returns. Turning back clocks to make up for the missed out hours is impossible but it’s possible to live life at the moment.
Talent
Yes, you can master everything with practice but talent is innately present in you since birth. A Grammy-winning alum is always going to be one step ahead of the rich grandkid of a millionaire who attended years of music school. You can use the money you have to polish talent but you can practically purchase something that isn’t naturally present inside you. Talent is a skill that courses through your veins like the blood inside your body. You can’t take it away and you can’t give it to someone else.
Peace
One needs to learn how to differentiate between inner peace and needs. Money can fulfill your needs for other things but the need for inner peace is something beyond this. Money assures a comfortable life undoubtedly it can get rid of many troubles. But, it’s a common misconception that wealth can always promise inner peace. As a matter of fact, in some cases, the abundance of wealth can further contribute to the lack of peace in your life. The abundance of cash can solve the external issues you’ve been meaning to solve but the inner issues need something tremendously bigger than that.
Sure, you’re currently worried about paying the gas bill, your child’s dues, and the mortgage of the house you live in. You might even be thinking that once you get a large sum of money and pay off all these bills you’ll be more at peace. But truthfully, one can only attain peace of heart through personal development and the inner urge to make things right beyond earning lots of wealth. Inner peace requires the urge to balance one’s life, meditation otherwise all the money in your life can’t provide peace to you unless you’re ready to work for it.
Wisdom
How much time you’ve got? Because to solidify the claim we’ve just made we can make a long list of heirs and heiresses that we’re able to spoil the net worth of their family’s hard-earned enterprises. That’s the thing, no matter how many billions you got from your grandparent’s will if you lack the wisdom to make the right choices you’re ultimately going to lose it. Having access to money and a long list of finance managers won’t bring you any luck if you have the wisdom to do what’s right. In fact, it was wisdom that turned an online bookstore owner’s idea into the billion dollars enterprise now known as Amazon.
Needless to say, even if you have a large sum of money, you can never be sure that the decisions you’re making in your personal or professional life are going to be as fruitful as you thought. One can only achieve wisdom if one has a knack for new experiences and a razor-sharp vision of things.
Loyal Friends
If you have to buy your way into important relationships then there’s clearly a 100% chance that you’re going to be at loss. You can feed the mouth of your so-called loyal friends for as long as you like but one of these days someone else might make a bigger bid and sold yours out. Loyal friends are earned through experiences, time, and dedication. Loyal friends don’t willingly desire your monetary help. On the contrary, they open up their wallets when you need them the most because friendship demands sacrifice and selflessness. When the crowd of loyal buddies around you starts fading away as your social standing crumbles, the wall between you and reality starts crumbling down as well.
Poise & Inner Beauty
“Fake it till you make it” as they say. But, there’s still an expiration date on how long one can actually fake things on the outside. You’ll crumble one day due to frustration unless you actually intently want to polish your character. You can take an illiterate, criminal off the streets and turn him into the next prime minister but you can’t provide him with the decent foreground to act like one. He’s going to lack the character, class, and poise that comes through real-life experiences, knowledge, and effort. It all takes time and due diligence to become a more polished individual. There isn’t something special about the models you see walking on the ramp with such poise. It’s all about the effort and intent to do better. You need the intention to become better way more than the money you need to polish the qualities hidden inside you.
Final Words
In the words of American businessman Richard Devos, the owner of a $5.1 billion enterprise; “Money can’t but peace of mind, it can’t heal ruptured relationships or build meaning into a life that has none”. In conclusion, one can assume that having many financial prospects can help you achieve a life of comfort. But, placing all your eggs in a single basket cannot promise a life of prosperity. There’s no harm in being affluent in this regard because such affluence comes with extreme amounts of labor. Yet, one has to really align his/her priorities and understand that you can’t miss out on important things in life and buy them back with the money you’ve earned.
