Money, money, money, must be funny, in the rich man's world…

I was confused to hear a moving speech by a friend recently the subject of which was “I want to make money, loads of money. People are doing nothing and making money.”

And it confused me because I started to think why does this person want to make money?

Now don’t give me the ‘is she mad’ look. Of course everybody wants to make money isn’t that obvious? And I know the argument that money buys comforts and to be happy in a country like India you need comforts around you all the time. Do we hear Mukesh Ambani complain of the traffic or Mr. Mittal crib over the power cuts?

But what I was wondering was if this friend wants more money just because everybody else wants it or is there a clear plan as to when, what and how. I think he was doing what most of us do, which is, we have a tendency to follow the brood, without reason and devoid of logic. We think it's the brood and masses are not wrong, so simple isn't it, just follow it. So now I request you to give a minute and honestly think of all the situations that made you happy in the last 10 days.

Your time starts now…

Think, think, think…think hard. Yes, made you happy in the last 10 days.

Good. How many were situations where money made you happy?

As for me, I have definitely been happy on my birthday last week but my happiness didn’t have anything to do with (you guessed it right) anything material. I had many friends and family wishing me and I was truly overwhelmed. I had my facebook page flooded with wishes and all of it had nothing to do with money. I was so happy to interact with some really expressive children who, unfortunately, cannot communicate due to a physical limitation but they communicated with me beautifully. And guess what, no money for that as well. I went for TEDx and heard some really good speakers and that made me a happy person. At work, one of our campaigns got a really good response and I was happy for that (and yes I get my salary but even if the campaign would have been a failure, I’d still be paid).

So perhaps you could argue that buying something really expensive had made you happy, the feeling to be able to afford. Of course it does. But my problem with that and especially in these times is that things are changing so constantly. Just as we are reveling in the pleasure of our new possession there’s already a new edition to make us feel bad. There is no end there…

And my second question is “how much money do you want to make?” and if you are able to give me a number, excellent.  But once you get that number, assure me you won’t change it and ask for more. And also, you won’t ask for health, luck or protection. And you will tell me how did you get to that number and also your plan with that money and will you guarantee me that you will be happy forever after you make that money and not be chasing another brood?

As we grow, our mind gets cluttered. So perhaps it’s simple. I think we just need to unclutter, sit back and reconnect with some basic meanings of happy, health, want, need, desires and money (as individuals and not as a brood) and rethink about what we really want and in what proportions.