What If Money Didn’t Matter?

Updated: November 14, 2020

Money is an invention of man, a creation that has for many centuries, imprisoned the way we live our lives. But what if money wasn’t invented, and we are all free to do whatever we want?

What if money didn’t matter?

How would you spend your life? What will you desire?

What if money is no object? What will you do? What will you live for?

British-born American philosopher, Alan Watts, asks the same question; while the music of Ludovico Einaudi’s Divenire, plays beautifully in the background.

Transcript below

What If Money Was No Object?

What do you desire? What makes you itch? What sort of situation would you like?

Let’s suppose, I do this often in vocational guidance of students: they come to me and say well, we are getting out of college and we haven’t the faintest idea what we want to do. So I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?

Well, it’s so amazing as the result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say “˜Well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers.’

But as everybody knows, you can’t earn any money that way! Another person says “˜Well, I’d like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses.’ I said, “˜You wanna teach in a riding school?’

Let’s go through with it. What do you want to do?

When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him, “˜You do that! And forget the money!’

Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time! You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living – that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing! Which is stupid!

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.

And after all, if you do really like what you are doing – it doesn’t really matter what it is – you can eventually become a master of it.

It’s the only way of becoming the master of something, to be really with it. And then you will be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much, somebody is interested in everything. Anything you can be interested in, you’ll find others who are.

But it’s absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like and to teach our children to follow the same track.

See, what we are doing is we are bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lives we are living. In order they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing.

So it’s all retch and no vomit – it never gets there! And so therefore it’s so important to consider this question:

What do I desire?

What do you desire?

We live in a society where, unfortunately, money does matter.

But ironically, that doesn’t matter.

Because what does matter, beyond money, is finding your personal calling that will allow you to lead a remarkable life for others.

Do what you love. Follow your passion. Honor your talents.

Seek excellence and success will follow.

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