George Bernard Shaw is known to have said,"Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honour, generosity and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness and ugliness."
The days of subsistence farming and barter trade have gone the way of the dinousaurs. For survival, all members of the global economy, from the richest to the poorest, depend on creating financial wealth for a living.
In such a situation, it's little wonder that people today are obsessed with financial success. Just see how children are trained to think about education. They are told they must study hard so that they can get a good job later and earn a good living.
Many of us must have been told the same thing at one time or another. Yet managing money is not as simple as earning and using it. Money in our wealth-obsessed society is associated with other emotional needs.
Financial success is related to feelings of comfort, respect, security and contentment. If the pursuit of wealth is not handled with skill and self-discipline, it can bring more pain than joy. Even artists like Andy Wharhol recognised the skills needed to handle money well:"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art... Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
There is notable quote by Edgar Watson Howe that illustrates the obsession the common man in the street has with money: "When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn't got any."
A large number of people can be so consumed with the idea of getting rich that they develop a mentality that money is the panacea for all problems in life. Therein lies danger for those who hope to 'make it rich' quickly. Without having the right basis for creating wealth and increasing it, their strategies become merely wishful thinking, and sometimes hazardous to others and themselves.
The Dao of Contentment
The days of subsistence farming and barter trade have gone the way of the dinousaurs. For survival, all members of the global economy, from the richest to the poorest, depend on creating financial wealth for a living.
In such a situation, it's little wonder that people today are obsessed with financial success. Just see how children are trained to think about education. They are told they must study hard so that they can get a good job later and earn a good living.
Many of us must have been told the same thing at one time or another. Yet managing money is not as simple as earning and using it. Money in our wealth-obsessed society is associated with other emotional needs.
Financial success is related to feelings of comfort, respect, security and contentment. If the pursuit of wealth is not handled with skill and self-discipline, it can bring more pain than joy. Even artists like Andy Wharhol recognised the skills needed to handle money well:"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art... Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
There is notable quote by Edgar Watson Howe that illustrates the obsession the common man in the street has with money: "When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn't got any."
A large number of people can be so consumed with the idea of getting rich that they develop a mentality that money is the panacea for all problems in life. Therein lies danger for those who hope to 'make it rich' quickly. Without having the right basis for creating wealth and increasing it, their strategies become merely wishful thinking, and sometimes hazardous to others and themselves.
The Dao of Contentment
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