Chapter 16: Finishing Your Masterpiece
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the next best time is tomorrow.” – Chinese Proverb
With the Wealth of Reciprocation, everything comes full circle.
Increasing your Emotional Wealth increases your Time Wealth, which allows you to increase your Location Wealth, which gives you a greater ability to reciprocate.
And when you approach each Principle of Wealth with a value-adding mindset, it doesn’t matter what Principle you start with. The Wealth of Reciprocation works backward to increase your Emotional Wealth, and your Emotional Wealth works forward to increase your ability to reciprocate.
When focusing on becoming rich, your Wealth isn’t linear so much as it’s circular. Much like the passionate center you identified through your emotional framework, your Wealth will increase outward and upward, but always around a balanced, connected center.
It’s called a Cycle of Wealth, and it constantly works toward increasing your overall riches through an uplifting cycle of connected Principles. Your Emotional Wealth lays the foundation, your Time Wealth gives you freedom, your Location Wealth gives you unique experiences and perspectives, and your Wealth of Reciprocation gives you a reason for your foundation, freedom, and experiences.
Then, the Cycle repeats itself, with your reciprocation adding to your emotional foundation. Only this time, the Cycle of Wealth increases in height, building on a larger foundation. As you repeat the Cycle over and over again, the ceiling of your overall Wealth continuously increases, because everything’s connected.
For me, my Cycle of Wealth changed with one random act.
I had been working in Investment Finance for a while, and was looking for a way out. I just didn’t resonate with the lifestyle, or the lifestyle didn’t resonate with me. I was becoming increasingly wealthy from a monetary standpoint, but was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my life.
It was almost like there was an inverse relationship between the amount of money I was making and the amount of happiness I had. As my money went up, my happiness went down.
I knew I had to make a change. I wasn’t yet aware of the four Principles of Wealth, but I had a “crazy” idea that money wasn’t the root of happiness or the cause of a fulfilling life.
So, with that in mind, I decided to pack up my home in sunny San Diego and try my hand in the Technology Industry of the booming Bay Area. I’m extremely employable, I thought, no need to worry about the job market.
Oh, how wrong I was! This was back in 2012, and although the world was pulling itself up by its bootstraps, the global economy was still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. A lot of companies, tech startups especially, were gun shy to spend what money they had on anything less than a sure thing.
I mean, if you asked me, I’d tell you I was a sure thing, but with no corporate finance or tech experience, people thought otherwise.
I had essentially packed my bags with no plan in mind, thinking that I could land a job in no time. I rolled into San Francisco expecting a welcome mat, and what I got was a sign to keep on moving. So, tail between my legs, I moved back in with my parents (gasp!), and continued to look for meaningful work in San Francisco.
I didn’t have a job, but being born in the Bay Area, I did have an insatiable desire to move to the city I’ve always loved. To help quell my appetite for a San Francisco lifestyle, I began to search for apartments in the City, knowing fully well that I wouldn’t be able to afford one. Hey, 90% of success is just showing up, right?
As fate would have it, or random chance more likely, my search became fruitful in that I was finally invited to check out an open room in an existing five-bedroom apartment.
If you aren’t familiar with the housing market in SF, it’s rough. Like, landlords receiving 150+ emails from applicants within a twelve-hour period rough. So when I got a response to check this place out, I was ecstatic, obviously glossing over the fact that I couldn’t actually live there. Whatever, I said, might as well check it out and see what I get for my money.
I’m glad I did.
Upon checking out the place, I realized that the house was great, but the roommates were even greater. I resonated with one roommate in particular, whom I mentioned in the section on Emotional Wealth.
He was a computer programmer and I was a finance guy, and we were both self-proclaimed business nerds. We nerded out on business for what seemed like hours before I told him that I was moving to the City to eventually start my own business. Without missing a beat, he smiled.
Well, he said, I’m actually the cofounder of a small startup, and we’re in need of some business-minded help.
Really? I responded flippantly, trying not to show the fact that I was about to jump out of my skin.
Who does your business planning and finances, I remember coyly asking.
No one, he responded, but we need someone.
Well make the introduction, I yelled to myself.
I’m willing to work for free, I suggested, to see if we’re a good fit for each other. He liked this idea (clearly), and within a week I was working as their advisor, and was helping the company grow from six people working out of a loft, to the 23-employee startup it is today.
What I didn’t realize at the time was that by offering free services, I was coming from a place of reciprocation, and was increasing my Wealth of Reciprocation. I felt really good that I was making an impact, and I felt happy that I was a part of something potentially great, both of which increased my Emotional Wealth.
As the company began to grow more and more, it made sense for me to come on full-time, rather than remain as an advisor.
Not only did this further add to my Emotional Wealth for all the reasons you’d think (network, confidence, stepping outside of my comfort zone, etc.), it increased my Time Wealth. I was finally doing something that was not only fun, but was something I believed in.
I was able to work from home when I wanted (something that would never fly at my previous firm), had unlimited vacation, and was surrounded by some truly like-minded individuals. Not to mention I was making a big impact.
This became my “base project,” and gave me the ownership and value of my time I’d been looking for.
My Time Wealth directly translated into the greatest Location Wealth I could ask for: I got to live in my favorite city, and still had the ability to travel and work remotely when I wanted.
These Principles of Wealth, although I was unaware of them at the time, gave me the skills and abilities to reciprocate with greater influence. I had a better understanding of business, which allowed me to help young entrepreneurs with their business ideas, and more importantly, show them how their business ideas could enhance their lives.
And all of this happened because I focused on adding-value in such a way that it naturally increased my Emotional Wealth, which started a snowball effect, increasing each Principle of Wealth in turn.
Everything’s connected.
What’s more, as I’ve been going through my own Cycle of Wealth, my level of success and happiness has continuously increased. I’ve taken the knowledge, skills, and abilities gained through my initial Cycle and parlayed them into increasingly more complex business endeavors, which have worked to build an increasingly more meaningful life through perpetually increasing Emotional Wealth, Time Wealth, Location Wealth, and the Wealth of Reciprocation.
I now have the confidence necessary to do anything I want, and I understand the value of true Wealth, and all because of a single act of kindness.
Start Your Spin Cycle
Your Cycle of Wealth never ends, but it does start somewhere. Don’t get too caught up in what should come first: Emotional, Time, Location, or Reciprocation. That’s like trying to figure out what came first, the chicken or the egg.
Work on each Principle of Wealth individually, together, and concurrently. It doesn’t quite matter where you start, what matters is that you start. True Wealth begins with a mindset that there’s more to life than what you’ve been told or prescribed.
Life is about the human experience. Foregoing a positive experience today in the hopes of receiving one tomorrow is a quick way to become money rich and life poor.
At the end of the day, all we are is a collection of thoughts, feelings, and memories. Spending any day not trying to create good memories through positive thoughts and uplifting feelings is a day not worth living.
Even your future goals and endeavors should directly enhance the present moment. Goals are important, but if they don’t make you feel “alive,” in whatever capacity that means to you, then they are irrelevant.
When it comes to enhancing the present, it’s not that your actions need to directly result in only good things, but rather in things that make you feel the human experience. Death, sadness, and anger, are just as important to us as life, laughter, and joy. It’s these emotions that make us feel alive, and in a life with finite time, “alive-ness” is the only thing we should care to feel.
This is what the most misguided people fail to recognize: that traditional wealth will make you traditionally wealthy, but it won’t make you feel alive.
Let’s try this. Decide for yourself which life has more value:
Someone, let’s call her Mary, has been told all her life that the accumulation of physical things and monetary resources are the measuring sticks of success. Since she’s never heard another narrative, she has no reason to believe otherwise. Taking her traditional view of wealth, Mary goes to a four-year university, attends graduate school right after, and gets a summer internship with a hedge fund that turns into a full-time job.
At the hedge fund, she pulls 16-hour days for more pay than either of her parents have ever made, combined. Running with the hedge fund crowd, she feels the need to keep up with all the shiny toys, and spends her salary on a nice car and a nicer apartment. Because of these purchases, however, she now has to continue to work at the hedge fund so she can afford her car payments and her rent.
She can arrive at work in style, sure, and she has a beautiful apartment to return home to, but with the hours she works, she has little time to drive her car or enjoy her home. And when her friends call to see if she’d be interested in a long-term vacation to Europe? Sorry, can’t get the time off.
Someone else, let’s call her Susan, has also been told all her life that the accumulation of physical things and monetary resources are the measuring sticks of success. She believes the narrative, but isn’t completely sure, and decides to test it in the real world. Wanting an education, Susan goes to a four-year university, but upon graduating decides to take a gap year and teach English in Europe.
While in Europe, she meets and interacts with a range of people from a range of cultures. Through these experiences, she begins to develop a more personal view of how the world operates, and realizes that the narrative she’s been told all her life doesn’t resonate with her.
Upon finishing her one-year contract teaching English, Susan decides to take a tour of Europe and continues to meet more amazing people similar to those she’s met while teaching. She travels throughout Europe, sleeping on friends’ couches and floors, and puts ultimate focus on the human experience.
Inspired by both her travels and her love for teaching, Susan heads back to her home country to start a travel-focused elementary school, which aims to cultivate the desire to explore in younger generations.
So, which life would you choose?
Granted, both examples are slanted to prove a point, yes, but the generalities are based in truth. I’d guess that most, if posed with these two narratives, would choose the latter. But why?
Mary believes that “alive-ness” is achieved through things, while Susan believes that “alive-ness” is achieved through acute experiences. And at the end of the day, it’s the act of experiencing life with a community of supporters that really resonates with us. That’s why, at least within the confines of this book, most would choose experiences over things.
What’s perplexing, though, is that while the majority of us would choose Susan’s life over Mary’s life on paper, almost none of us will actively go out and live that life.
Again, why?
It’s because we collectively lack the mindset shift needed to place value in anything but the traditional understanding of wealth. We fear going against the grain, the unknown, and the possibility that others will view us as unsuccessful. But the joke’s on them, because the only life worth living is one that maximizes every day through experiences that make you feel alive.
So, to start your Path to Wealth, work on your mindset. Understand that life is finite, and any day doing something you don’t find value in doing, is a day of Wealth wasted.