I love the framework presented by Naval Ravikant (if you don’t know him, get to know him, I suggest starting with his interview on The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish), that money is “social credits.” I think we sometimes, as humans, get caught up in the multi-player-game-type (too many hyphens?) goal of get “x,” “x” being determined by what your friends, colleagues or family have. In speaking with some of the guys in the office yesterday we did this exercise of “what’s your number?” and “what would you do if you hit it?” Let’s skip the number for a moment, and focus on, what I think I would do. The answer is, nearly the same damn thing. OK, so we add a few cool cars and an upgraded house (to fit an expanding family), but that’s about it as far as “things” are concerned. Outside of that, it’s (1) spend more time with family (2) read more (3) exercise (and play tennis) more (4) travel more (5) continue working (because I love work), but only on the stuff I really enjoy (which isn’t far from where I am now). Everything is just more of the things that I already have and love.
The real gift may the removal of the aching fear that somehow I won’t be able to provide for my family, but I’m not sure if that ever goes away. It probably re-manifests itself as a fear that the wealth or money will somehow disappear. That’s something genetic, in our DNA, that kept us alive for so many generations… that underlying fear, worry and competitiveness.
I just wrote a quick summary of the above and my opinions on wealth and promptly deleted it, because Naval says it (and most things) better than I. “Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.”
Money isn't real
But if you loose everything – knowledge and reputation are tools that you can apply to stand back up. Anyone can fail and loose everything, but their mind (hopefully) isn’t going anywhere.
It’s probably more scary to loose wealth since usually there’s too much time put into building it and you can’t get it back quickly 🧐