| What is wealth, exactly? It's freedom. There are many | | | | technology that will benefit millions of other people. In a |
| people who earn a lot of money, but don't have true | | | | world where money is the most important thing we |
| wealth - they work to make enough money to spend | | | | need to survive, the highest calling that one can |
| on things, then have to keep working to make even | | | | answer is the calling to become wealthy - along with |
| more money. They never have a comfortable financial | | | | our inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of |
| cushion in case they lose (or decide to quit) their jobs, | | | | happiness, we also have an inalienable right to strive |
| and they rarely, if ever, enjoy the fruits of their labors. | | | | for material wealth. |
| But real wealth means that you can live your life fully, | | | | It sound horribly materialistic, but it's just simple truth. As |
| spending quality time with your family and friends, | | | | humans, we have the ability to better ourselves, to |
| taking trips to exotic locations, or enjoying | | | | achieve great things in the world, and to advance to |
| close-to-home adventures on your boat or at your | | | | the highest planes of existence possible. We have the |
| mountain cabin. If you're working 45 or 59 hours a | | | | minds to understand what that entails, and the drive |
| week at a job you hate, coming home exhausted and | | | | and intelligence to work towards it. To be content with |
| angry every night, then spending your one week of | | | | less than the best that we can be, have and produce |
| vacation doing chores around the house ... you're not | | | | is a waste of these unique abilities that we alone as |
| really living. You're working purely to exist, and existing | | | | animals have been given. |
| only to work. | | | | There's a verse in the Bible that asks, "What does it |
| There is no nobility in being poor - in fact, it's often | | | | profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own |
| humiliating, and uses up a lot of your time and energy | | | | soul?" But the same can be asked about the man |
| just working to get by. The struggle to pay the bills and | | | | who fails to strive for material success as well - |
| put food on the table has kept countless men and | | | | without money, you can't afford healthy food, or |
| women from achieving their full potential, keeping them | | | | decent clothing, or a pleasant home. So, then, you could |
| from painting, writing, composing operas or contributing | | | | also ask what it profits a man to work so hard when |
| to society in other valuable ways, all because they | | | | he's unable to enjoy his life? Wanting to become rich is |
| spent so much of their creative energies simply | | | | not only understandable, it's one of the most laudable |
| working to survive. | | | | achievements you can hope to attain. It means that |
| It's unfair to be sure but, to fully partake of all that | | | | you want the best for yourself, and for your family. |
| society has to offer, we need money to buy things, | | | | Once you've achieved wealth, you can truly fulfill your |
| whether those things are plane tickets to explore other | | | | dreams and the dreams of others. |
| cultures or equipment to create art, music or | | | | |