Last week I was having a discussion with a very close friend about our past, present and future. When I asked him what he wants to do in life, his reply was, “Earn millions of dollars”. I believed that he had something specific in his mind so I asked him, “For what?”. And he had no answers. He didn’t even say ‘to live lavishly’ because he is not that kind of guy. He does not know what he want to do with that money. But then why he wants to earn so much? I couldn’t really understand. That set me thinking that earning money cannot be a goal.
Money serves a purpose, it is a means to a goal. What if somehow 10 million dollars appeared in my account? It doesn’t matter how – I inherited it, someone just gave it to me, I earned it, or I won a lottery. But what matters is that what would I do with it? I thought a lot about it but it seemed like my mind had gone just blank. There are many things a person can do – buy house, cars, travel, and blah blah. I couldn’t comeup with a to-do list that would make some sense to me. Finally, I narrowed down to the following options to discuss with you:
Use it for upliftment of poor children – Every once in a while I browse through the websites of the non-profit organizations working towards betterment of poor children and providing them education. Although many non-profit organizations (not all) are working hard towards upliftment of poor children, their efforts alone are not enough. They need more hands to share the load, more minds with right attitude, and more financial sources for the cause. As Annie puts it (35 million, 12 paise),
That’s right. Thirty-five million. These millions are, what the government of India collectively calls, ‘children in need of protection‘. Defined by the ministry of social justice and empowerment as children in ‘extremely difficult circumstances’, they include children in conflict with the law, victims of crime or natural disasters, orphaned, abandoned or runaway children, rescued child labourers, trafficked children, amongst others.
I do donate in small amounts whenever I can but I am not able to contribute significantly since even a small amount is infact a large percentage of my student stipend. However, what I really want to do is to sponsor complete education of atleast one child if possible. But that’s not possible yet on my student stipend.
If I had 10 million dollars, I could sponsor education for many more children. For that I need to find the right people and the question that arises is which organization I can donate to? Which one to trust with such a huge amount of money? How would I know that the money is being used for the right purpose and reaching the deserving ones? Or instead of just donating the money, can I use it for the same purpose in some other way? I have never thought about it. This means I am not ready to have so much money yet for this purpose. I am not prepared for it. Forget 10 million dollars, I have no idea how I am going to help towards the betterment of poor children once I graduate and start earning.
Start a company – Couple of times I had discussions with friends about starting my own company. I want my ‘company’ to have a good purpose, something useful to society, and not just profit-making. Paul Graham suggests to have right people, right products and right spending plan to start a company. With 10 million dollars in my pocket, I won’t have to worry for the funds (atleast for a while). But the problem is that I don’t know what I will produce and which customers I will target. I don’t know yet. I am not ready to have so much money for this purpose. I am an introvert person so networking, for me, is a nightmare. Rob listed excellent suggestions on how to network for introvert people like me. But I have not started working on it. It requires lot of efforts on my part. But If I won’t then how am I suppose to find right people when I’ll need them. Seems like I am just not prepared yet. When will I start preparing for it?
Make investments – Among other options, this seems to be a wise call. But I don’t know the ABC of how and where to invest. I read Ramit’s blog regularly but have never given enough time to research on his suggestions on how to start investing wisely and act on them. What stops me is the thinking barrier that I don’t earn ‘enough’ money right now. But that’s not the problem. I can start taking small steps like open a savings account (ING, HSBC, EMIGRANT). But I am too lazy to do it. The problem is my attitude and overthinking. I need to change my thinking to prepare myself to handle such a huge sum of money.
Spend it lavishly – Well, I won’t be able to do it without feeling guilty so this option doesn’t count for me. Been a student for so long, that I have learned to live within my means.
In summary, I have not prepared myself to do any of the above even to my capacity as of now. I can tell you that it is not the lack of money that is stopping me but my laziness and overthinking. People who are serious about doing something, just do it. Money matters don’t stop them. What’s needed is the DOer attitude, which makes every difficult-to-do and/or seem-to-be-impossible thing possible, be it starting Room to Read by John Wood or SUBWAY by Fred and Peter.
What would you do if you had 10 million dollars? What are you doing right now? Do you really think that lack of money is stopping you?
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Life without motion is as good as being dead. Understand that motion here doesn’t mean to move your body from here to there. Being in motion means to add value to life of yours, your family, your friends, and everyone else. Adding value to yourself by learning. Adding value to others’ life by giving. Life in motion is always moving upwards towards becoming an educated being.