Money Vs. Value and Determining Your Own Happiness
I know, I know the title sounds audacious.
That's for a reason.
This is a great yet transcendent life concept.
One that most people will mull over with the tendency to say "yeah but you have to XYZ."
Which is simply a filler into allowing the acceptance of this concept to settle in because the predisposition and world that has built us show us its errors in deterministic paths.
Okay, let's dive.
Money Vs. Value
This is a vast topic.
Initially, money was indicative of value.
The value was the leading indicator of worth when we venture back into the tribal ancestors of our past.
They knew who the best hunter was, the best lover, the best at sourcing medicines, etc...
Which of course led to differences in treatments based on the value and service that those humans could provide, a simple model for value transfer and reaping what you sow.
As we pushed into more and more tribe members, we needed a new way to exchange value.
And thus we broke Dunbar's Number with the use of standardized money.
This money was meant to allow for trust based on the fact that it contained a value.
Birchbark trees moved to gold moved to paper allotments of that gold.
Thus, each dispersal was based on a finite resource that could account and hold value, making it the store of value we often talk about.
Now it also functioned as a means of exchange, allowing for the trade in value.
This created a form of society allowing for transferring wealth, and what should have lead to putting value where it is indeed driven.
Why Modern Billionaires Don't Make Sense
A billionaire shouldn't be someone who learned how to play the stock market.
Nor should it be someone who created a company.
It should quite literally be the person who provides terrific value to everyone around them because money is solely a measurement of the amount.
Not intrinsic value or value that is supposedly inherent to the person, as that would make their profit valueless, but instead the value that they give to others.
Value is merely a way to show who uses energy efficiently and brings it to those around them.
Playing the stock markets can get someone a lot of money, but ultimately shitty rich people stay shitty rich people, with a higher perceived value.
It's the reason people want to hang out with famous people.
Their perceived value is large, granted they may be insecure drug addicts, it seems like they hold a lot of value.
Does Higher Value Mean More Money?
Not necessarily.
Mother Theresa, Gandhi and countless other sages don't get the monetary reward.
They provide more value than most of our modern billionaires and millionaires.
More value can, of course, lead to better life experiences, food, wellbeing and more money, but it doesn't have too.
Nikola Tesla is a prime example of countless amounts of value with no such monetary or sociologically gain.
And so No higher value doesn't mean more money, just like more money doesn't equate to higher value.
Money Isn't Happiness, Value Plays a Part, And You Are The Most Important.
All of this is a measure of value.
Not of happiness.
And they do not equate.
Sure anyone can feel great giving tons of value, but often that can be superficial.
Finding yourself, outside of money is one of the most important lessons for this world.
We often lose ourselves in chasing money, fame, and success.
Without finding who we truly are because when you take a moment and look around at yourself right now, everything is okay.
You are alive, breathing and have the ability to read.
And it's going to get better.
Just by acknowledging the life around you, this illusion of money and wealth dissipates.
The trap of chasing these vices releases its grips and your finally able to enjoy the moment.
Stop chasing money and start finding yourself,
Austin
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