Sushi Money

     What are your real motivations for making money?  Do you want to become rich?  Or is that something that seems too greedy?  I think we should be honest with ourselves, and the sooner the better!

     Lately I’ve been wondering how many of us are truly driven to increase our wealth.  When I say “driven” I mean that one of our primary goals in life is to save, invest or accumulate as much money as possible in order to become “rich”.  Is that a goal for you?   I must say honestly it never has been a goal for me before.  And what about business and entrepreneurship?  Is your goal to succeed and become wealthy through business and working hard developing a company?  What about using personal energy and creativity to achieve great things?   For me, that was never a priority either.  But I’m finding as I grow older that what we strongly desire, what we hold in our thoughts and dreams, and what vision we have for our future can indeed become our reality.   If money is not part of that vision or dream, then guess what?  It’s probably not going to be part of our future, or a reality in our life either. 

     When I look to my future, I see a desire for a comfortable, enjoyable life, free of worry and stress about financial matters.  I also see things I would like to do, and places I would like to go.  I also see that a lot of money may be involved at times.   In some ways that bothers me… I don’t want money to be the focus of my life.  At least not in terms of trying to get “more” money all the time.  But when I am really honest with myself, I do want the things and opportunities that money can buy.  I do want to be able to give to charity, to start new companies, to travel to far-off places around the world, to help educate children and increase opportunity for others.   All of that takes money that most of us must work and save many years to gather.  But do I only want to have that money after I’m 65 years old?  No!  I would like to have it sooner…  to enjoy along the way.

   But I’ve always been about balance, and I think that has held me back.  Not too many excesses here or there, not too much risk, yet not too much boredom.  Well, except perhaps flying off of aircraft carriers in fighter jets for many years… but it didn’t seem like risk at the time.  It was just something I strongly desired and enjoyed doing.   Otherwise, I’ve led a fairly moderate life and approach to things.  Even my investments are balanced overall.  But guess what?  I don’t think a balanced approach is necessarily going to achieve great things unless given a great deal of time.   Sure, with 30-40 years of consistent saving and investing, I think almost anyone can become very wealthy.  But most of us do not consistently save or invest for that length of time!  As it stands right now, I’ll give myself 25 years as an estimate for how long I will be consistently saving and investing until retirement.  Barring unforeseen circumstances, that should allow us to accumulate a very nice nestegg.  But unless we take on a little more risk, or succeed in a business venture, we are probably not going to ever become rich.   That’s a hard notion to swallow or accept, especially if you are someone who is accustomed to success.  

     As we grow older, it seems like we go through a process of cherishing the things we can do, and accepting the things we cannot, or may not, do anymore.  But I refuse to believe that I can’t become more wealthy!  The energy and creativity that exists within the human spirit is unlimited in my opinion, and we can achieve great things at any age.  So to wrap up this self-absorbed examination of “money motivations” I think what I’m saying is that I’m now going to acknowledge my desire to become wealthy.  I’m going to accept and encourage that desire as a goal for my life over time, as well as my other goals.  I will still try to achieve balance in all aspects of living… but where saving, investing and developing creative ways to make money are concerned?  I’m excited about a future that is only ours to create!  We’ve got to start somewhere, and there’s no time like the present.

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