One yardstick we can judge people by is money. "He is rich ( or poor)"; this statement is associated with a lot of things in our mind. Why do we think in this way? Someone is rich or poor in this world. Why does it matter?
A note: "Value" is a matter of perception by people who pay for it. It is not a set standard. The best product, service or business can fail if it is perceived poorly. Too bad.
On a different topic. I borrowed 1400 page two-volume Pathology textbooks from collaborating Professor on Friday. I was reading some parts of them over weekend. I was also reading "The complete idiot's guide to Ballroom Dancing" by Jeff Allen. In the chapter 3, they asked women why they dance. They said, "because of music". They asked the same question to men. They answered, "for women". The writing confirmed my experience very well.
I think it has something to do with our view of success in life. Money is a number on your scorecard in the game of life.
Excluding rare exceptions (the "born-rich with a silver spoon's" and the "super lucky lottery winners"), most of us need to deal with financial issues in this society. You have to start with where you are. And how much money you make and have in your life depends on your strategy and output.
People fall in one of the following four categories.
People fall in one of the following four categories.
1. The super rich. People who create something of value that impacts many people or something that has very high value, can be super rich. Computers and Bill Gates. Harry Potter novels and movies and JK Rowling. (I am not including or endorsing illegal or predatory super-rich here, like being a warlord.)
2. The middle class A. People who acquire some skills and sell their time for their skills. They are called workers or employees. They get paid because they have certain value to the employers and/or customers, and they can be rich, modestly or sufficiently, but most likely not super rich.
3. The middle class B. Small scale business owners. They provide enough values to customers so their business lives. They can grow big, or they can go bankrupt. Depending on the amount of the value they create.
3. The middle class B. Small scale business owners. They provide enough values to customers so their business lives. They can grow big, or they can go bankrupt. Depending on the amount of the value they create.
4. The poor. People who do not create value for whatever reason. They only consume. Although everyone has to consume, the rich and okay folks balance it out with their output. But people in this category, they are not paid for their output, because there is none or an insufficient amount, thus they usually have no money.
The poor can be a temporal setback status, like someone struck by misfortune, or a chronic symptom of a person who creates no value. So we need to factor this in when we see a poor person.
If you see things this way, you may realize that the super-rich (1) are big givers to the society, the okay-folks (2 and 3) are modest givers, and the poor (4) only consume with insufficient output.
Probably most of us understand this already. "Someone is rich" suggests the person has done a good job for people or has created a higher amount of value. They scored higher.
This line of thinking led me to hypothesize that we should strive to create more value and output if we want to be rich. Creating something of big value that has potential to be a super-rich is not an easy task. It takes strategy, work and time. Finally as a result money may follow, but not the other way around. In other words, you got to give first.
A note: "Value" is a matter of perception by people who pay for it. It is not a set standard. The best product, service or business can fail if it is perceived poorly. Too bad.
On a different topic. I borrowed 1400 page two-volume Pathology textbooks from collaborating Professor on Friday. I was reading some parts of them over weekend. I was also reading "The complete idiot's guide to Ballroom Dancing" by Jeff Allen. In the chapter 3, they asked women why they dance. They said, "because of music". They asked the same question to men. They answered, "for women". The writing confirmed my experience very well.
