I — Ignore Temptation to Make Money the Goal
Originally posted at http://tarsoxjr.blog
Previous post C — Cease Anxious Thoughts
“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 5:10
This was a commitment I made to myself over 20 years ago, I would NEVER make money the most important goal. Don’t get me wrong this is not to say I didn’t want to make as much as I could but I didn’t want to do that and sacrifice who I was. I’ll never forget when I was around 20 years old and ready to leave my college job at CompUSA to move into a role that would set me off on my career path. I had applied for a Help Desk position at a local company and they offered me $26k a year…”WHAT?!? I’m worth at least $32k!” I contemplated for a minute turning down this job, but it was right then I said: “nope this is the right job for my career and I’ll show them!” I left that job over 5 years later with numerous industry certifications and a healthy salary for someone in their mid-20s.
I’m so glad I made this commitment to myself early on and decided to let my work and effort speak for itself. I continued to rise higher in the organizations I worked for and was climbing the salary ladder all along the way. I was proud of the fact that my work was recognized and each year my W2 was rising consistently. We had 3 kids along the way and you begin to grow accustomed to a certain level of income, too accustom in my opinion. You become a slave to your job and realize if I don’t get up in the morning and go do this job ( I hate ) we have to give up “all this”, all of the material possessions that at the end of the day mean absolutely nothing.
I have been very fortunate in my career to have loved 90% of the jobs I have had and the 10% thankfully didn’t last that long. The reason for that is when I found myself in positions I didn’t like I never sat back and let it crush me, I worked to align myself with something more fulfilling and most importantly in line with my career plan and went after it. In my latest role, I was faced with my most difficult decision yet. After an acquisition, it is typically important to keep the executives around and is a prime opportunity to ensure you are well compensated. I did just that, though somewhat unintentionally. I was being honest with my management about where my head was early last year. It wasn’t in a great place but had little to do with money. One question asked was “would more money help?”…now I’m not sure who has ever said no to this question but I certainly didn’t. They came through and certainly removed that part of the decision from the equation, but alas the title of this blog is not “grab as much money as you can and do something that makes you unhappy” if it was I likely wouldn’t be writing this.
In fact, it says “ignore the temptation to make money the goal”. This is easier said than done especially in this situation, it was the highest paid I’ve been in my career, likely overpaid but no doubt you are worth what someone will pay you so I never apologize for that. However, it could have thrown a wrench into this decision if it weren’t for that commitment I made to myself and one I verbalized with my latest management team. “I will not make my decision based on money” and I ultimately I didn’t. I decided to walk away, but I did so with great confidence. Not because of a bank account but because God is with me in this decision and I know it.
I love the scripture Ecclesiastes 5:10 “whoever loves money never has enough whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” boy is this true. I made so many mistakes in my 20s trying to live a life that I had not earned but only one that credit cards could purchase. It never mattered how much money came in it was never enough because it couldn’t keep up with my continued desire to have more. I never gave charitably I simply stuffed my pockets, bought more crap I didn’t need and was living the “American dream”…assuming that dream meant credit cards and sleepless nights. As my salary rose our standard of living outpaced it, the rat race began.
I was very fortunate to have a few things go my way over the last few years after many long years of investing blood, sweat, and tears in startup companies that didn’t go so well. Now don’t get me wrong I am not in any position to retire, not even close. Every day I’m out of work is a risk for my family, a calculated risk but a risk just the same. What I have in this moment is an unwavering faith in a God who says He is all I need. It’s funny how when we had nothing we spent, spent and spent to try and be something we weren’t. Now that we have some financial freedom our focus has evolved and we want to experience more of what life has to offer, give generously and not be beholden to our materialistic lifestyle choices.
I’m really excited about what the path ahead has in store for me and how God will use this story and my life as I set aside my desire for more “stuff” and focus on following my heart.
