Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2010. Emilio Botín, who died in 2014, was then chairman of Banco Santander, and Carlos Slim and Bill Gates were cited as the world’s richest men at the time.
Many people think that money isn’t important, or that it isn’t the most important thing, but often that’s just something we tell ourselves to feel better. Calvin Ayre likes to say, without any qualms, that anyone who thinks money doesn’t buy happiness has never had money and doesn’t know what it feels like to have it.
So today we’re reflecting on money and some of its myths, but above all we’re looking at the truth about money, in an attempt to motivate you to get off your backside and go out and earn it.
The most common myths, or sayings, about money are:
Money can’t buy happiness: true, just as it’s true that it is a potential ally in the pursuit of happiness. If money doesn’t buy happiness, why are so many moments of sadness and worry caused by a lack of it? “Money can’t buy happiness” is something we should tell the people who may lose their home because they can’t keep up with their mortgage.
Money can’t buy love: It doesn’t, but it buys everything else that can be paid for, and that makes a person with capital more attractive in the eyes of the opposite sex. I’m not the one saying it; science says so.
Money corrupts people: Completely false. People become corrupt in order to get money.
Money can’t buy respect: It doesn’t buy respect, but it gives authority, and authority is a synonym for respect. In any situation, we would have more respect for Emilio Botín (then chairman of Banco Santander) than for a homeless man, and money would be the only difference between them, since both are flesh-and-blood people.
Sadly, or logically, money makes the world go round, since there’s no way to imagine a world in which money isn’t pursued.
In a way, the world isn’t driven by governments but by the industries that generate most of the capital, capable of changing the course of an economy. Oil companies, the arms industry and banks are what really control the markets and therefore, to some extent, governments around the world, because if that weren’t the case, governments probably wouldn’t exist.
There have always been rich and poor, and the more poverty grows, the richer a particular group becomes. In fact, 97% of the world’s capital belongs to 5% of the population.
Fortunately, today anyone has the chance to get ahead, with endless resources to achieve, if not the fortune of Carlos Slim or Bill Gates, at least a comfortable standard of living. These days I wouldn’t draw a line between rich and poor, but rather between people who seized opportunities and people who settled for whatever life handed them.
The biggest companies by revenue today were started by people who, you could say, weren’t born into rich families but into humble ones. Even so, in record time (less than a decade) they managed to pioneer a new way of doing business or seeing life, building multimillion-dollar companies.
Remember a few things:
- Destiny only exists for people who settle. If you think destiny decides your future, sit back and wait to see what it has in store for you next.
- In this life, you’re worth what you think you’re worth. If you believe you’re worth a lot, that’s what you’re worth, and if you think you’re worth nothing, that’s what you’re worth. (I’m not naming the author of this phrase because I don’t remember who it was.)
- As we’ve said before, the worst thing in life isn’t failing but doing nothing for fear of failure.
- Success is never guaranteed, but failure is certain if you don’t try to succeed.
In short: Although I don’t consider myself a materialistic person, I know how important it is to have healthy finances. We can’t eliminate poverty in the world, though sometimes we insist on trying, but eliminating our own poverty is in our hands, and I’ll say it again: the chances of doing it and succeeding today are infinitely greater. It’s just a matter of setting your mind to it and putting all your effort and determination into it.
At the end of the road, two outcomes await us: success and failure. Nobody can guarantee us either, but spending the rest of your life wondering “what would have happened if I’d tried a little harder?” would, I think, ruin anyone mentally and emotionally.
The best day to start is today, and the best time to give up is… never. I just hope this mix of sayings I once heard helps someone see that destiny is in our hands, with our definition of destiny being “the outcome of a series of actions that lead to the result we ourselves have created.”
Further reading
- The only secrets to getting rich
- Steve Jobs’s beginnings: a motivational story
- An entrepreneur’s mindset, according to Donald Trump
Featured image: Simon Wheatley, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.
