Do we really want to be Millionaires ?
There’s more to life than money
When I was a kid, I wanted to make a lot of money. Study hard — Get into a good school — get a good position — become rich — that was the plan. I would always think of ways to become a millionaire. Today like back in the days, there are still thousands if not millions of books which will give suggestions and advice or sometimes even an action plan about how can we make quick money and stuff our bank accounts with dollar bills. Everyone around me wants to be a millionaire. I would also want to have money in my account, I mean who doesn’t want that. But the important question is
Millionaire fine but at the cost of what ? certainly not life itself.
Life for me is experiences. True that making money in life can also lead you through hills and valleys and we do get to learn our fair share of morals and business tricks. However, we aim to get rich monetarily. Somehow we lose out on what life initially was meant to be — to explore. I have a lot of friends who are working for big shot multinationals. They travel the globe for their projects and assignments. But what about the learning aspect from these travels. I once met a lady sitting next to me in a flight from Amsterdam to New Delhi. Through our brief discussion I found out that she was on a business trip to Sweden and was returning back to India. I asked her what did she like about Sweden and she told me she was busy with 3 presentations in 4 days and had no time to experience Stockholm. Wow, this was a shocker for me. How can you miss out on such an opportunity. But let’s face it — this has what life has come to be for us. We do not get to experience life.
Day in day out we go to the office. Sit at the table, sip a cup of espresso or cappuccino, browse through our mails, update out To-Do list and start our day of chores and unfinished assignments. Every now and then we may go for a smoke or for another coffee or grab an apple from the coffee room but we hardly look outside the window and think of the sun beams on the grass or the beautiful rainbow which may come up on brief occasions. Even if an iota of the working population thinks of it, in another moment their minds are back to the thoughts of what they shall be presenting in the next meeting to the team. This is what an average work life has come to. We are so focused on promotions or getting a pay rise that we cut short on what life has to teach us as individuals, things which make us better people.
What is an experience ? One can argue that working towards a good company bonus is also an experience which someone who travels will never have. That is true and I cannot agree more with this opinion. The point where I digress for this accord is what we learn from it. A professional may work for a bonus and learn how to get a better bonus the next time and that in most cases is the end of story. For you as a reader to make my point more clear let’s continue this story. This professional in a parallel world, instead of working towards a bonus forgetting his / her personal life rather invests some time travelling or develops a hobby. As a traveller , he/she is exposed to the culture, can observe how things work in different parts of the globe and sometimes even can question the very basis of his / her own background. Such experiences help to understand where we came from, how we have survived as humans over time and how we need to move forward. So in my dictionary (which others may disagree with) an experiences is an act or practice which makes us question things around us. Because if we don’t question, we haven’t understood. The beauty of experiences is that it makes us question and even change things around us. And it doesn't cost to have experiences, they just happen if we focus on a broader view on life and not our career as such. Experiences are not like casino rewards. There are no “all-or-nothing” clauses, they are always around us. We just need to realize them. And in this case too, practice does make it perfect.
Opposition argument could be that hitherto, I have been speaking of an ideal society bereft of helplessness where everyone does what they want to do without constraints. This may apply to the West but it is certainly not applicable in the East. But to all such arguments, I would suggest that in order to gather experiences, take some time off your busy schedule and if required burn the midnight oil. Try to connect all the dots of events and happenings around you and if you dont like it try to change it. Who knows, this curiosity and willingness can take you places. Life is full of surprises and sometimes it lies within us.
So next time when you are stuck on an issue, try to focus on what this situation is teaching you and what are the points you can extract and apply them in your personal life and in some cases, professional life as well. Never be worried about failure because in the words of Oprah, you can turn your wounds into wisdom.
It is the knowledge that makes us rich. Experience begets knowledge, which in turn gives us wisdom. This wisdom can help us brighten sad hearts with rich smiles and trust me this will make you much happy than to be a millionaire without experience.
