Who wants to be a billionaire?
T. Boone Pickens, a wealthy American business magnate once quipped: “The first billion is the hardest.” His assertion being that once you make your first billion dollars, your subsequent billions become much easier.
It seems like more and more people these days have a desire to become excessively wealthy, but is it actually worth it?
More money in your life is better than less money, but only up to a point. There is a plethora of studies which all essentially conclude once people are financially comfortable enough, more money becomes more of a burden than a blessing.
Consider the list of the 10 richest people in the world right now (as determined by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index)
Elon Musk has been divorced three times. Jeff Bezos is also divorced. So is Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates and Sergey Brin (who was in 10th spot a couple weeks ago). Warren Buffett split from his wife in an unusual arrangement where she left him and he took on a new partner. Larry Ellison has been divorced four times.
The 10 richest people in the world have a combined 12 divorces between them. Not even all the money in the world can buy you more stable relationships.
In fact, the opposite is probably true. More money and success likely make it harder to have healthy relationships because there is always more work to do and wealth to build.
The richest person in the world has admitted as much on several different occasions.
Earlier in November this year, Elon Musk talked about the fact that he works from morning until night 7 days a week. He shared that being the richest person on the planet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be:
“I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure how many people would actually like to be me. They would like to be what they imagine being me, which is not the same thing as actually being me. The amount that I torture myself is next level, frankly.”
Sure, the money sounds great, but would you actually want the richest man on the planet’s life? I wouldn’t.
In a profile from the New York Times a few years ago, Musk shared that his work nearly made him miss his own brother’s wedding (where he was the best man). Running multiple companies makes it difficult to spend time with his children or take any days off:
Two days later, he was scheduled to be the best man at the wedding of his brother, Kimbal, in Catalonia. Mr. Musk said he flew directly there from the factory, arriving just two hours before the ceremony. Immediately afterward, he got back on the plane and returned straight to Tesla headquarters, where work on the mass-market Model 3 has been all consuming.
He said he had been working up to 120 hours a week recently — echoing the reason he cited in a recent public apology to an analyst whom he had berated. In the interview, Mr. Musk said he had not taken more than a week off since 2001, when he was bedridden with malaria.
“There were times when I didn’t leave the factory for three or four days — days when I didn’t go outside,” he said. “This has really come at the expense of seeing my kids. And seeing friends.”
The billions he’s made from those companies sound great until you realise all of the baggage that comes with it.
Money is important but the money in and of itself doesn’t equate to true wealth.
At Gilkison Group the purpose behind everything we do is to help our clients experience their ‘Rich Life’. To us and our clients, a Rich Life is:
- …having health relationships with the people that you care about
- …finding balance between all the things in life that are important to you (work, family, friends)
- …not chasing status to impress other people
- …having more time to do what you want with your life
- …not worrying about money