The Myth of Money, Fame and Power

Money, fame, and power — for their own sake — all spell one thing: glamour.

Glamour is one of the biggest traps in life. It is a sweet, sticky snare, like the petals of a Venus-flytrap. "Come to me," it beckons, "All happiness lies here."

What lies there are lies. It all rests on the myth we discussed earlier — that someone or something outside us can make us happy; that we are somehow incomplete without certain externals; and that if we have enough certain externals, we will never be unhappy again.

"You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy," explained Jean Kerr. "Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help."

Money, fame and power, as intentions, are deadly. People pursue them, get them, are not happy (in fact, are usually more unhappy). Then they decide, "It must not be enough. I need more, then I'll be happy." So they set their sights higher, get more of the thing that didn't make them happy in the first place, and are unhappier still.

As with any addictive substance, by now they're hooked. Life becomes the relentless pursuit of more! More! More!

Are we saying money, fame and power are intrinsically evil? No. They have their place. They are tools — methods for obtaining other goals. As goals themselves, however, they are nothing. Less than nothing. Distractions at best; addictions at worst.

Take money, for example. Let's say we're hungry and we don't have any money. We think, "If I only had money, I could eat. I want some money. I'm hungry and I want some money." So, someone says he'll give us all the money we could want, and locks us in a room with one million dollars in cash. Now what? Are we still hungry? Yes. Do we have lots of money? Yes. Perhaps a few lower forms of life that thrive on paper and ink could find nourishment there, but within a few weeks we would probably trade the whole pile for a hamburger.

That's what it's like to go after money for money's sake. You get the money, and then what? "I'd see the world." Then make seeing the world your goal. If money is the necessary method for doing that, fine. It will come. There could, however, be lots of other methods. You could, for example, meet someone who wants to hire a traveling companion and get paid to see the world.

"I've had an exciting life," Rose Kennedy wrote. "I married for love and got a little money along with it." That's another method. Of course, do marry for love. Remember the old saying, "The one who marries for money, earns it."

"Money won't buy happiness," Bill Vaughan said, "but it will pay the salaries of a huge research staff to study the problem."

Some people who want to, say, write a book, wonder how to get the money so they can buy a word processor. When we point out to them that several very fine books were written before the advent of computers, they usually frown and say, "You don't understand."

We do understand. We were writing books back when the cheapest computer cost a million dollars. Did we wait to get a million dollars before writing? No. We wrote with the "word processor" at hand — a pen. Shakespeare didn't even have that. He used a quill.

Many people use money as the rational lie for not doing something they want to do. It sounds so good. "As soon as I get the money to                                                                                  , I'll be living my dream!" Other people listening to these excuses believe them, because they, too, have their collection of rational lies. It's a conspiracy: I won't challenge your rational lies if you don't challenge mine,

"When you do what you love, the money follows," is probably a phrase you've heard before. It's true, but incomplete.

The complete statement is, "When you do what you love, the necessary money will follow." The money that's needed to fulfill your goal will appear, in the proper timing, as you prove yourself worthy (that is, as you do the work necessary to fulfill that goal). What will not appear is all the money that would be nice and make everything all comfortable and cozy to do what you love in precisely the moment you want it.

If you want to write a book, you will, for a start have enough money to buy a pencil, a notebook, and be given fifteen free minutes each day. If you use the fifteen minutes each day writing, when you fill the notebook, you will have enough money for another notebook and be given thirty minutes a day. And so on. Eventually, you'll have a book. What will the person have who's waiting for a computer before even beginning to write? Waiting.

To make the phrase "Do what you love and the necessary money will follow," even more accurate, we'd say, "Do what you love, and the necessary resources will follow."

In some cases, it will be money. In other cases, it will be time. It might be information, tools, connections, opportunities—the list is endless. Another word for resources, of course, is methods.

It's the same with fame. If fame is the natural result of doing what you love to do, then so be it. Most famous people consider fame a burden. The "burden of fame" is something of a joke, of course. "A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known" said Fred Allen, "then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized."

Funny side aside, however, imagine not being able to go anywhere without being mobbed. It may sound nice, and for a time it might be fun, but, after a while, you'd probably agree with Lewis Grizzard: "Being a newspaper columnist is like being married to a nymphomaniac. It's great for the first two weeks."

"If I were famous," some not-famous people say, "I'd get on TV and raise money to feed the homeless." A double-glamour whammy! Fame to get money to get something done. To anyone saying this, we suggest: If feeding the homeless is your calling, go out and feed one homeless person now. Tomorrow, feed two. Keep it up. Maybe you'll become famous for that. If so, use it as a tool. If not, at least you'll be fulfilling your dream. As Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things — only small things with great love."

You can easily see how power enters into the glamour trap. What's the point of power if you don't use it for something? Nothing. So, what is the something you would do if you had the power? Then go do that. "Do the thing and you will have the Power," Emerson explained.

No, it may not be as grand, sweeping and dramatic as our imagination might conjure, but if you don't get satisfaction from doing it on a small scale, you won't get any more satisfaction doing it on a global scale. Nothing, multiplied by five billion, is still nothing.

⇐ Предыдущая10111213141516171819Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: