Money Talks!

In my career as a banker and chief financial officer, I have worked daily with millions of dollars, and occasionally even with billions. I have known some of the wealthiest people on this planet.

If there is one thing absolutely everyone talks about – it is money. And you can also say that Money Talks.

The marvelous Italian sports car and the immense private yacht are meant to impress us, and it works. Presidents and queens bow to money like to nothing else.

But I also know some of the poorest of the poor, such as the drug addict who sleeps in a garage, and the poor street children who can’t stop eating when they come to our house, because they don’t know when they will get another good meal. Money doesn’t work well for them.

I will write more later about how to earn money, to invest it, spend it, and how to use it wisely. You could say that I am kind of a money expert. But first I want to tell you about the essence of money; why it dominates our lives.

Money has replaced gold as the main measure of value. How much does he make? How much is she worth? Can they buy whatever they want?

Governments rise and fall by how well they distribute the wealth in social programs and how adeptly they rake it in through taxes. If the economy is booming, a government is powerful. But when recession strikes, we voters throw the government out!

Money is strangely not a real thing – that is why one single piece of paper can be worth either a single dollar, or a million dollars, depending solely on the words the paper contains.

Money is created by governments to facilitate buying and selling, working and saving and other financial transactions. It is a marker in the economic game entitling us to goods and services.

Money is really a social device to organize our whole society. It can be used unbelievably well, like by Mother Teresa, or selfishly and arrogantly.

How we get our money and how we use it tells the real story of who we are. It can never make us happy for long, but money often makes us very sad.

Money can be the goal of our lives that mostly disappoints us. It should however be only a useful tool, rather than our master.

Money is truly the measure of a man: not how much he has, but how he gets it and how he uses it.

Money talks – often far too loudly.

It’s not “just a job” – it’s your life

Many times I hear people say “It’s just a job”. What they mean is this job is only a temporary thing, a way of getting enough money until something more important happens in their life. They may be planning a trip, or to get married, to buy a car or house, or to do something else that seems far more important than their work. But they are wrong, quite wrong. It is never “just a job”; work is the most important part of their life.

Work has many, many dimensions. It is the place we invest our energy in order to get money – for all of our needs. It provides a place where we can use our creative abilities and to build friendships, if we try. For the lucky and highly-skilled, it may provide opportunities for promotion or even a chance to become rich.

It is also the place of our greatest frustrations: the hard boss, the scheming co-worker, or of the human tragedies we witness so frequently, like some nice co-worker dying of cancer.

But I think the most important dimension of our job is that it is the place where we spend the greatest part of days, our years and of our lives. It is the place we can become profoundly happy or bitterly sad.

Although we can blame almost anyone for what is bad about our job, at the end of the day our job is what we make it to be. We can make a job into nearly heaven, or else turn it into hellish drudgery. Our own attitude towards our work makes that critical difference between a “good” job and a “bad” job.

For most of us there is almost no escape from work, except at the end of a long day or weekend. But the next day, it again becomes the most important dimension of our life.

Let me give you just a few quick snapshots of people living and working well on their jobs.

Paul runs a tiny shoe store where he has worked for more than 50 years selling and fixing shoes. People come back year after year to his store because it is a special store and Paul is such a wonderful person. Paul takes an interest not only in making my shoes work wonderfully well, but he takes an interest in me as a person every time I arrive in his store.

Rob runs a tiny little bakery helped by enthusiastic teenagers. Rob is known all over the city for the quality of his pastries, but that is just the beginning. He offers a wonderful place for young people to work in their first jobs and he gives away countless pastries and loaves of bread to rich and poor, just for the joy of making people happy.

Jean works as a job recruiter, but she does far more than supplying bodies to employers. She treats every person with such friendly enthusiasm that they are inspired, even if they don’t get the job they hoped for.

Byran is the type of lawyer who never inspires a lawyer’s joke. He is kind, sensitive, and thoughtful. He uses his incredible knowledge of the law to make things work better for people, or at least to rescue them from disaster when the situation looks impossible. He is a lifetime friend to some people fortunate enough to know such a wonderful professional.

Robin is a carpenter and builder, who worked on renovating our old house on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Working for below market wages, he transformed our dilapidated cottage into a lovely home. And he made the whole process fun!

I am sure every one of us knows many people who do their jobs exceptionally well. They could be a police officer, a teacher, a banker, a store clerk, or a tradesman. What they all have in common is giving their very best effort to doing their job well and in treating everyone exceptionally well.

Whether they get promoted or wealthy becomes secondary. What counts is that they are so joyfully alive in their work that their lives are satisfying. They also enrich everyone else they meet. For them, it’s not “just a job”, it’s their life!

If you happen to advance in your career or to get rich, that is a bonus; but not if you sacrifice your happiness and contentment with your work.

Your work is your ultimate creation. It is far more than just a job – it is you life!