Is wealth in your mind or in your pocket?
The greatest wealth is to live content with little- Plato
Social media triggers us to put the famous integrity question on the agenda, since lots of decisions taken by companies are obviously visible to everybody because of the transparency of decision-making process and business activities through RRR (reputation, ranking, review). It is no coincidence that the expansion of social media and mobile data has led to increasing interest in Dutch professor Paul de Blot from Dutch Nyenrode University and his ideas on business spirituality as a business topic. In time of big changes we obviously have to redefine our position on aims and opinions around the topic: how to improve the profitability by use of social media?
People basically desire three things in life: fun, money, and prestige but the weight of these factors is a personal issue and might differ. You might define prestige, recognition and fame as top priority. The other one prefers enjoyment in silence.
What is wealth for you?
Of course there are lots of ideas and thought on the topic. What is wealth? Who is wealthy? Plato said once- I have modified the original quote-: Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.
Of course there are different dimensions to wealth. Harry Palmer, founder of the Avatar consciousness training, is talking about four drivers motivating human beings :sex, money, power and salvation. Recognizable for you? Is wealth for your the extent to which you have succeeded in those areas? Or maybe it is an extent to which you experience a meaningful life?
Wealth looks to me like a multi-headed monster where only your individual answer in a particular situation matters. Wealth is therefore not only a certain situation but also an experience and maybe even a definition of your own situation: you are wealthy if you feel so.
Why then many of us feel wealthy on a camping in the South of France in a small tent with simple cookware? Why do we feel happy having helped a friend by pulling him back from a misery. What drives you and me? Is this what we experience what Csikszentmihalyi calls ‘flow’?
I have summarized ‘wealth’ in two dimensions: the financial and emotional one. In these two dimensions 4 different areas have been created. They reflect my vision on wealth.
| What are your drives? | Emotionally | ||
| Are you ‘rich’? | yes | no | |
| Financially | Yes | giving | grabbing |
| No | grateful | grieving |
People who are wealthy, both financially and emotionally , I call ‘givers’. Bill Gates is a good example. They are fully empowered to add value and importance to their own life. They are the Victors.
Financially wealthy but emotionally poor people ‘grab’. They are not aware of other alternatives. This is their way of stressing the importance of their life.
Financially poor but emotionally wealthy people ‘enjoy’ and are grateful. Satisfaction and an inspired, meaningful life are crucial to them.
Financially and emotionally poor people ‘hurt’. This leads actually to the ‘splitting behavior’, hate and rancor: ‘conflict creates comfort’ as a survival strategy.
It is tempting to apply the above mentioned classification to countries, political parties or trade unions. But that is going too far now and is unnecessary in my opinion. I hope to have ‘touched’ you by sharing my opinion on wealth.
It would be interesting to have a closer look at how being powerful transforms people emotionally and financially. Does power shift someone more towards emotional poverty or does it strengthen one’s current position and shift it more towards the corner: the grabber is going to multiply grabbing and the giver starts to double gifts. What do you think?
Do social media and new opportunities of earning money change you? Is it grabbing or giving for you? Choose! Get ready to get real!
And what would be your answer on the question in the title of this column?