The new wealth according to a Gen-Z.
We are all influenced
YouTube and our Social Media are crowded with success stories. Everything seems possible. It’s only a question of desire and motivation. I often watch online coaches who sell the money dream, the life of Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet or Henry Ford.
Many influencers tend to lead us to what they think is the best for us: to become damn rich (rich in a sense of “possessing a lot of money and assets”). Is wealth always related to money? Through meditation and self-introspection, I discovered that my happiness didn’t depend on my bank account’s balance. Despite this, I personally still hunger for capital.
Soon I will have to split the shares of Bloomind (a young digital agency) with my girlfriend who is, at the same time, my business partner. I’m scared about this situation. Would I act as a businessman (homo-economicus) or would I act as a boyfriend and a humble person?
From my point of view, the relationship that we usually have with money is an unhealthy one. How many families totally split up after an unfair heritage? How many friends can’t stand each other after they paid the bill?
Money requires time
Some months ago, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and one the wealthiest men in the world faced a trial of 3 days for 12 consecutive hours. While his old competitor Thomas Anderson, founder of Myspace, was chilling with cocktails on exotic beaches. While Zuckerberg earns around 4.4 million per day (CNBC, 2017), Anderson is digging into his capital every day.
More money requests to spend more time into it. The problem is that time is limited, for all of us. If you decide to work 12 hours a day on your business with 8 hours of sleep, you still have 4 hours for something else. Which do you choose? Your girlfriend or your music lessons?
You’ll never be a rock star if you don’t invest your time in your guitar skills while you will never have a long-term relationship if you don’t spend time with your loved one.
The rich people that I know are often old. They worked hard and reached this level with a lot of sacrifices in their agenda. They sacrificed time with their family, friends, hobbies etc.
The more money you want, the more time you’ll have to invest in it at the cost of other activities.
Now comes the concept of time management, productivity tricks, automation. You can indeed earn more while doing less. In the same time, our unhealthy relationship with money leads us to want always more and more. Capital minimalism is not a concept really famous yet… While a lot of people agree on “the less is more”, only a few apply to it.
People would come to me and say: “Hey dude, you can always give me what you have !”. Do you think that I’ll sacrifice my time of living for opportunists?
A new way of thinking wealth
Imagine that we rethink what wealth means. Imagine that we emphasize the time spent instead of the amount of cash and assets.
People from my generation don’t want to be millionaires; they want to experience what they think only millions can buy. I’ll break something to you: it’s not all about the money. The Kelly Bag or the gold watch are tools (to be viewed as – or feel – beautiful).
I hope my generation will understand that our time has much more value than the money we think it’s worth. Someone who works 10 hours a week for 1 000 euros is richer than someone who works 80 hours a week for 10 000 euros.
Realize the value of time. Life is too short to work for a paycheck and a retirement pay. The secure retirement anyway would be accessible to only 20% of us (incredibly ambitious and hard-working individuals) due to the realities of today’s market…
Liberate yourself from traditional expectations, from what the media sell us. Be original. Be different and that’s in this difference that you’ll live fully.
In the end, if you hunger for money, like the most of us and that includes me, think about this question:
If someone offered you one billion but you would only live until 30 years old? Would you accept the package?
