For those of us who are upwardly mobile, the big objective is to be financially free, so that we can do anything we want. We feel that IF we ONLY had money, THEN we could go for our dreams. Since we don’t have the money right now, we must grab as much as we can along the way until we are finally ready. In the process, we make money our god; all the while feeling it is a necessary evil.
In truth, our money, or our frantic insistence upon it, owns us, or we own it. Either we work for money, or money works for us. Whether it is our slave driver, or our incomparable servant, is ultimately up to each of us.
It would greatly help if we had a crystal clear understanding of what makes money money, something precious few of us, even professional economists, have mastered.
Remove Money Fears
Learn how to end fears of financial success
What Is Money?
When we think of money, we first visualize currency, such as dollar bills, or coins, originally silver and gold, now mostly copper and nickel. If we are more sophisticated, we imagine gold bullion behind sealed vaults. Few of us think of money as simply electronic bank deposits of digital numbers.
We think of money, itself, as containing value. The value of the money is the denomination on the face of the bill. Surely it is worth that much. The federal government guarantees its acceptance. What we don’t sufficiently realize is that the Federal Reserve, and by extension, our government, literally prints money, creating it out of nothing. The Fed doesn’t flood the market with notes, simply because the currency would become too diluted. It presses its luck only so far.
We have been off the gold and silver standards for decades. This means there doesn’t need to be a single ounce of precious metal to back up a single buck. As you dwell on this, you will begin to realize that what we call money represents agreed-upon value, that it is both a symbol and a medium of exchange. It replaces barter. Do you really want to try to trade your old Mac for a cow? Not many ranchers would take you up on the offer!
How Real Is Money?
Money is real only in the sense that the beautiful menu in an elegant French restaurant is real. It is a tool to facilitate buying and selling, or a fair exchange between both parties. The dollars are like inches on a ruler. They are purely conceptual. You can’t eat them or drink them. Without massive value behind them, they would be worth less than the very paper upon which they are printed. This is a poignant point to anyone from countries that have suffered run-away inflation.
It would be a huge mistake to suppose that money is a total illusion, as it represents goods and services that are indispensable for our very survival and wellbeing. Behind these goods and services are people, equipment, buildings, farms and the very ecosystem of our planet. Every dollar in our pocket presupposes a massive infrastructure to support it. Millions of people invested the bulk of their lives to make this happen.
Money, itself, can be looked upon as an instrument, an essential tool to serve humanity. Our post-industrial society couldn’t function without it. Even if we overhauled the global monetary system and operated on a command economy, we would still have to come up with some system of measuring and negotiating value. The function money serves is utterly irreplaceable.
What Is True Wealth?
True wealth is far more than platinum, gold, silver and diamonds. These minerals have great ornamental and decorative value, and are useful in some industrial processes. For example, diamonds are strong enough to cut steel. However, true wealth is the accumulated resources of Planet Earth, herself, and, by extension, the physical universe.
True wealth is contained in what we think of as civilization, such as cities, monuments, farms and transportation systems, from railroads to supersonic jets, even rockets. Yet it is also lies beyond what we consider as civilization, the mountains, the oceans, the rivers and the atmosphere. It lies in organizations of people who have taken us from the Stone Age to the Information Age.
True wealth, on a deeper level, includes spiritual resources, as well as the world of culture and the arts, much of which is largely invisible, but which makes our lives worthwhile. Imagine stripping the world of all its museums, libraries and bookstores. Imagine, if even for a week, having the World Wide Web suddenly go down. What would we do if Google went out of business? It is not so much the high technology, as what it delivers for us?
How to Create Agreement
You may be wondering how to put these insights to use to realize your own financial freedom. Money may be but a symbol and a medium of exchange, but you sure could use a lot more of it! What to do?
We frequently make the mistake of assuming it takes money to make money, that you have to have money to win agreement. Not so! Sales is the art of getting people to agree on the value of a product or service you offer, and act upon it NOW.
It is interesting to note in the 2016 Presidential Election, that Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, had the most cash available for her campaign, nearly a billion dollars. Bernie Sanders had 20 million votes behind him, powered by nominal donations of individual contributors. Donald Trump, a multibillionaire, conspicuously used a very modest amount of money to fund his campaign, defying convention at every step.
To create agreement, you need to totally empathize with as many people as possible, to listen to them on a very deep level, and come up with compelling solutions to their problems. They don’t even have to be your own solutions. You can sell other people’s products and services. You then need to help them appropriate the solution today, rather than at a later time. This, of course, requires a certain skill with negotiation. You might think of it as “creative selling.”
How to Create Value
To create value, you simply need to start thinking out of the box, to hang out in the world of possibility. When Steve Jobs began selling the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad, he was selling things that no one really “had” to buy. When he rolled out the iMac as the first Internet-ready PC in a transparent box, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. When he held up the iPhone for the first time in 2007 to a spellbound audience, no one had a clue that they might even need such a device. Do I really need to buy a computer, a mobile phone and a music player all in one device?
Apple during the 2000’s did such a splendid job of creating the highest standards of innovation, excellence, durability and sheer beauty, that it broke all sales records and became the world’s most valuable company. When Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, Apple began a slight, but steady, erosion in innovation, because the passion that drove the company to such heights, was now gone.
Steve Jobs knew in his bones how to create value. It is very hard to follow an act of that magnitude.
To create value, yourself, look for new possibilities that deeply speak to you, that tie in with your own dreams and passions. It could be as simple as being deeply frustrated at the responsiveness of taxis in one of the most prominent cities. Travis Kalanick conceived of Uber while waiting for a cab in San Francisco. Like Steve Jobs, he didn’t think San Francisco, he thought the entire world. As we can see, his dream is well on its way to becoming real.
The More Money Flows, The More It Grows
If you are anything like me, you imagine money much like a pot of gold, a huge stash in a highly secure place where you can flip your fingers through a mountain of hundred-dollar bills, and gold and silver American Eagles. This is a useful exercise to fuel your desire for prosperity, but it is a bit counterproductive.
The world’s leading entrepreneurs and capitalists look at every dollar as a little servant that they can put to work. If the economy is secure, they want their servants out in the field, providing value to others. They have many holdings, and it takes a CPA to manage the balance sheet and accurately determine their net worth. True entrepreneurs and capitalists go well beyond simple money games, such as playing day trader. They are into building new worlds.
You may want to keep some cash under a mattress for a rainy day. But it won’t gain in value. Inflation is likely to eat the life out of it.
When money is hoarded it stagnates. When it is exchanged and flows through the economy, it builds value.
As an exercise, with your next paycheck, ask yourself, “What new possibilities could I create with this cash?”
Think Like an Enlightened Capitalist, Think Like a Social Entrepreneur
We are undergoing a global transformation among leading magnates, such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg, who have taken the Billionaire’s Pledge. They have all agreed to literally give away 90% or more of their wealth to worthwhile causes, many startup businesses out to make a difference in the world. If you hear Bill and Melinda Gates talk today, they get immense satisfaction from their Foundation, the largest in the world, and treat it more like a full-time job, than a hobby.
Enlightened capitalists and social entrepreneurs deeply care about large-scale, intractable problems, such as global warming, religious terrorism and the digital divide. They believe in Spirit and in people. They are here to make a difference, and they are profoundly grateful for all the support they got on the way to becoming superrich. They want nothing more than to help other people be in a position to make a difference.
You might start by checking out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and finding out more about how it operates. The founders soon came to realize that to responsibly give away money required a great deal of scrutiny. They wanted to use the very same business skills that built Microsoft, to create new businesses that help humanity, not only survive this era, but thrive in the next.
Your Source Owns the Universe
To free you from a very earthbound conception of money, contemplate your true identity, who you really are in this, and any other, incarnation. Being born again, in both the Christian and Hindu sense, is about discovering your spiritual identity, that you are a son or daughter of God, that you, in your ultimate identity, are nothing less than the I AM behind the entire Universe.
One hymn claims that Our Father owns the cattle on ten thousand hills. This is literally true. God is your and my Source, our only true and ultimate Identity.
Why let money own you, when you already own the entire universe?
Do You Own Money? Or Does Money Own You? appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.
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