The One Thing No Amount Of Money Can Ever Buy
I Was Lucky. I Know Not Everyone Is.
There are a lot of things money can’t buy. For most of those, money is a good enough proxy, especially if you have a lot of it.
Bad eyes? Get LASIK surgery. Lack of cooking skills? Hire a chef. Suck at Facebook ads? Pay a great mentor.
Among all the things money can’t really buy, there is one that may forever elude you. No matter how heavy the silver spoon you’ve been born in your mouth with might have been.
Upbringing. No matter how rich you are or were or will be, money can’t buy you a good upbringing.
This is my family:
For the past 4 years, we’ve taken a Christmas family picture. It’s becoming a tradition. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be born to such great parents.
Everything I am proud of can be credited right back to them. Being brought up well is priceless, because it equips you with many other things you also have a hard time buying, like:
- Optimism. My parents taught me to always look on the bright side.
- Determination. “Come on, you’ve made it this far, you can finish this!”
- Care. Just ask: “Who can I help today?”
- Love. Whatever you do, put your heart into it.
- Abundance. Wherever your love comes from, there’s enough for everyone.
- Discipline. If we’re gonna do something, let’s do it right.
- Frugality. Excess breeds regret.
- Joy. My mum gave me a t-shirt last year, which said: “Forget the rules.” Never lose your inner kid.
- Gratitude. The reason I’m writing this.
- Self-Awareness. Knowing your limits is worth something too.
- Work ethic. Effort engenders meaning.
- Responsibility. Pretend it’s your fault. Even if it isn’t.
A good upbringing teaches you all of those and more. Sadly, it’s literally impossible to buy it.
Not just because you can’t grab a box of “upbringing” from the shelf at the supermarket and throw it into your shopping cart, it’s also a timing issue.
The problem is you wouldn’t have the money when you need to buy it — around when you’re 3–4 years old and start to become (self-)aware.
Even if you did, because you were born rich, you wouldn’t have the power to spend it, because you’re not old enough. Plus, your rich parents, who don’t educate you well, would hardly give you the money to, well, get new parents.
You might think this sucks, but don’t fret: you can still learn all of these later in life. You’ll just have to teach yourself. That’s way harder, but not impossible.
Whether you’ve been lucky or not, I hope one day, you too will be part of the most wonderful thing in this world: a family you can fall back on at all times.
Family is not an important thing. It’s everything. ~Michael J. Fox
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I write more here. This started as an answer on www.quora.com.
