Money is important. It can buy you food, shelter, security, convenience, etc. There’s no downplaying that it’s important. But life is not just about the money.
The Inspiration Behind This Post: Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn has a great quote about money. He said: “Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.”
While it’s great to earn a million dollars, or two-million, or over ten-million–the principle remains the same. You have to become something greater in order to earn the money. Unless you win the lottery–you have to become something more to earn more.
What You Develop Into
Think about yourself or someone you know who has become financially successful. Did they earn their money through a traditional career, starting a business, making great investments? What changes did you or they have to make in order to earn more money?
People don’t just develop into something great overnight. It takes time, commitment, dedication, and persistence.
I’ll give you an analogy of a professional basketball player. Anyone who makes it to the NBA doesn’t go straight from birth to the professional level. They practice by dribbling in the backyard, then shooting some hoops at the park. Then they join a youth league, play high school basketball and summer ball, etc.
Making it to the NBA is a culmination of all that hard work, time, and dedication. Same thing with success in personal finance. There are steps, learning curves, and years of trials and tribulations.
The Skills You Acquire
Making money is a skill. It’s not acquired overnight, and nobody can magically give it to you. You have to get the skill.
There are endless skills that will help you acquire money. A few examples:
- Learning sales
- Becoming a doctor
- Figuring out how to make money investing
- Learning computer coding
Any one of these skills will help you acquire money. And there are literally thousands of skills that can be acquired to help you make money.
Related: Investing: It Comes Down to Financial Habits and Consistency
The People You Meet
It’s very hard to sit behind a computer all day and make money. Some people have been able to do it, but they are an anomaly.
Success–whether it’s great family relationships, abundant friendships, health, or a budding career almost always require establishing and maintaining positive relationships.
The people you meet while on your journey to success really matter. Very seldom do people look back at their life and think about the times they made the most money. Most of the time it’s about a project they did as a team, a championship they won as a team, or a business started with the help of other people.
It’s not really about the money itself, but the process of working with other people. Even if you look at the story of Steve Jobs, the real highlights of his life were working with his friends in his parent’s garage. The money started to come in, and that was great, but the camaraderie and friendships were the real high points.
The Actions You Take
Money doesn’t come if you’re sitting still. It only comes to those who take action.
For example, you can read all the books you want and watch an endless amount of YouTube videos about starting a business. You might know more than most CEO’s of companies. But if no action is taken, nothing will happen.
Taking action leads to more learning, meeting new people, establishing new relationships, and getting better. There really is no shortcut to taking action.
It’s in the action taking process that people begin to grow, stretch, and see new things. The finish line isn’t always clear but as more and more action is taken, things start to become visible.
There’s an analogy I’ve heard many times. If you’re traveling somewhere miles away in the fog, you won’t be able to see your destination. However, you can see the next stop light.
After you pass that stop light, you can see the next one. And the next one, and the next one after that. Eventually you will get to your destination, but you didn’t see the whole thing at first.
What You Learn
In the process of earning, investing, and saving money, you are going to learn a lot. Those lessons can never be taken away from you and will make you a smarter and better all-around person. When things happen organically and by taking action, the lessons are really absorbed.
This is one of the reasons so many lottery winners go bankrupt after only a few years. They didn’t “become” in the process of earning that money so they don’t understand how to manage it and live with it. It’s totally unfamiliar and they don’t have the appropriate amount of knowledge to handle it.
Whereas someone who starts their own company, struggles for months and years, and eventually makes it big financially will understand how to manage their new found wealth because they have been an active part of that process. This person understands what it takes, the value of money, and how to make and preserve it.
Knowledge: The One Thing That Can’t Be Taken Away
This relates directly to the next point about knowledge. It’s the one thing that can’t be taken away. Once you have it, you have it.
In the process of an income generating activity like starting a business, working in a job, doing a side hustle, etc. you will learn new things. This knowledge can’t be taken away. It’s an investment in yourself with infinite returns.
For example, someone who runs a business for a few years will learn a ton of things in the process, such as:
- Getting funding
- Budgeting
- Acquiring new customers and keeping existing ones
- Leadership skills
These are all really valuable things that can’t be taken away. No matter if the company continues to succeed, treads water, or fails–the knowledge can’t be taken away.
Conclusion
Money is important but what you become in the process is also incredibly valuable. If done right, it’s inevitable that you will become an overall better person. More skills, better leadership, ability to delegate, better time-manager–the list is endless.
So while the money is nice and an important part of life, the act of becoming is what life is about. It’s not just about the money.
