THE ESSENCE OF WEALTH BUILDING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WEALTH ITSELF (2)

CONVERSATION WITH MY BILLIONAIRE FRIEND
(Session 6)

Not all lives are vanity. Life is a game whose beginning is zero but the ending doesn’t have to be zero. Nelson Mandela pushed life’s envelope from 0 to 1, which is everyone’s ultimate assignment on earth. The first examination is to find one’s X while the second is to add value to it: X+1 = Self-actualisation.

Notorious dictators like General Sani Abacha, Field Marshal Idi-Amin Dada, Mobotu Seseseko, etc., who mercilessly looted their respective countries and left robust foreign bank accounts for their children, lived in vain because they found and destroyed X. Consequently, their children and children’s children can never leverage their names nationally or internationally. In nature’s bank, they remain debtors, their respective ledgers are in deep red, with huge negative carry-forward balances which may take up to the 4th generation in their lineage to balance – Tim Akano

It takes generosity to discover our essence, through others. If you realise you are only a violin, you should open yourself up to the world by playing your role in the concert – Jacques Yves Cousteau

I was at my Billionaire Friend’s place at the agreed time, and as usual, all security protocols were observed. My Billionaire Friend ushered me in straight to the same garden where we had last discussed. The scenery never loses its beauty. I’m sure Eden would have looked like this. We chatted a bit but without wasting any time, he hit the ground running.

“My boss, I think there is the need to anchor last week’s subject properly on its philosophical foundation. This would help the readers to understand the importance of that topic to the wealth-building process we have been discussing.”

Very well then, I enthused.

“Okay, my boss. Let us go back to God’s instructions in Genesis. Read it out and let me explain a few points from it.”

I read it out: “And God blessed them and God said unto them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth”.

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Then my Billionaire Friend took over: “Inside that command by God, there was an inherent power to make it happen but there is a process for everything to happen the way it is commanded. God sent every single one of the human beings he created as a seed to the world.”

He spoke like a sage. “For that seed to become fruit-bearing, it first must be buried in the ground as a seed; it is the decomposed seed that eventually becomes a tree that eventually grows fruit-bearing branches. There is no other way for a seed to become fruit-bearing; the way to the harvest realm is to ground.”

“Unfortunately, I have observed that many people don’t want to pass through the process. They want to start bearing fruits without first being planted as seeds. And you know why? The process of turning from a seed into a fruit-bearing tree is a very messy one. The seed first has to be messed up. It is like the labour time for a woman who is about to give birth to a child. It is a tough process and many people would want to avoid that process. But unfortunately, there is no shortcut to success. It is the same when you are trying to build a business that would create a nest for others. You have to be buried first before you now shoot out as trees that now provide shelter for so many other people”.

“That is the way God breeds all his ambassadors. There is no shortcut. The way to the top is down first. When the woman in the labour room eventually gives birth to a baby, she is flooded with joy and happiness that cannot be described unless you experience it personally.

“Here is what I have discovered in the process of building wealth: when you break this thing called “Life”, you would discover that happiness should be the central goal of all men. Our living is best enriched through the pursuit of happiness, we live and lead quality lives when we are happy. We would see the beauty of the stars and not worry about the hustle of the next day. Happiness is gold. Building wealth can only be meaningful if such wealth gives happiness to others. True wealth is measured by how much impact it makes. Little wonder Nigerian HipPop Singer, David Adedeji Adeleke a.k.a Davido would say, we rise by lifting others”.

“Indeed, happiness is the central ingredient to meaningful living by man. True happiness, from utilising the principles of positive psychology, for life’s fulfilment, is the very foundation of that special area of psychology. Happiness helps humans to lead a useful life. This issue of studying how to remain happy began with early humanist thinkers like Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. However, the father of modern positive psychology is Martin Seligman. Martin Seligman espouses that happiness is best obtained by giving unto others, as different from receiving. Hence, the essence of acquiring wealth, includes very importantly, looking and closely exploring, what makes life really meaningful”.

“Meaningful living has been found by Martin Seligman, to be central to making human living more purposeful and useful to oneself, others, one’s society and nation. Seligman’s thesis is this: The essence of acquiring wealth not being limited to building wealth for wealth sake alone, but about using the wealth built and the process of building the wealth for the pursuit of happiness for one’s self, family, non-family members, one’s society, and one’s nation. Even employees at senior positions should make it a duty to expose and develop their subordinates to the knowledge of building wealth, provide opportunities for subordinates to grow, while such bosses continue to pursue the building of their own wealth.

“This is what is gives happiness to living. Life is not just about surviving. Life is not just about living, but making impactful contributions to the lives of others in need, one’s society and nation, in line with the philosophy of positive psychology. It is about deriving authentic happiness from giving inspiration to subordinates, giving them happiness, and letting subordinates love to work for their bosses. This is the very essence of positive and meaningful living.”

“I submit that the essence of building wealth is more with deriving happiness in habitually giving unto the needy others, from the wealth possessed and not in holding wealth, solely for oneself and family. From experience, the philosophy behind such habitual benevolence, as in the school of positive psychology, has personally been found to give me incredible happiness, deep satisfaction, inspires me to continue to do more”.

“Again, my observation of the successes of others through my inspiration has been an incredible source of happiness for me. Over the years, I have come to realise that, whatever you give out to needy others, you will always eventually get rewarded in multiple folds.”

WE CAME HERE WITH NOTHING AND WITH NOTHING SHALL WE DEPART, WHEN OUR TIME IS UP.

“Everything we own here on earth is only on a lease to us; it would pass on to others when we die. The best decision that the wealthy should make, is to remain detached away from the glamour and ego of their wealth and create happiness for themselves, through habitually giving and giving to society’s needy”.

“Man was not created to own anything. As mere trustees, everything owned by man does not belong to man. We need to learn from Alexandra the Great, who was the ruler of Persia but died at thirty-three years of age. Alexandra the Great was quoted to have asked his pallbearers to ensure that medical doctors line up the route to his grave and that both his hands must extend outside his coffin throughout the procession to his grave. When asked why this was his request, he informed them, “I want the world to see that even as great as I was, before my death, no doctor could save me from dying”. Again, when asked, why he wanted his two hands extended outside his coffin, he said “I want the world to see that even though, I owned so much of the world, I took nothing away. By so doing, my two hands would be seen by all, to be empty to my grave”.

I have observed over time that even though my Billionaire Friend is a wealthy man by all standards he is very frugal in many ways, hardly displaying his wealth as many wealthy individuals I know do. So I asked him how he came about the rules of life he now lives by

My Billionaire Friend shot back: “I have lived by that rule since I was 32. My knowledge of positive psychology and theology has guided me in being aware and conscious that, I am a mere TRUSTEE with all that I may possess, in life. Indeed, we humans own nothing here on earth”. “We came to this world with nothing and we shall leave with nothing. We are mere trustees of God almighty. As provided by the Bible in the book of Genesis, God is known to have created everything and decided on the sixth day to create man by saying, “let us create man in our own image”, to manage all I have created. Hence, we are merely only managing whatever wealth we own, while living, and at death, whatever we own surely belongs to God”.

“This should always be our guiding principle in the pursuit of building wealth. We should realise that we have primarily only come into this world to live and survive. There are three classes of wealth builders; some of us are positive wealth builders; some others are neutral wealth builders, and some others are negative wealth builders”.

“The neutral wealth-builders are those who live to build wealth solely for the benefit of themselves and their immediate families. The negative wealth-builders are those who build wealth through any means and who, in the process create turmoil, pain, and hardships for others for their sole benefit. These class of wealth builders are conscienceless, selfish, self-conceited, evil, greedy, wicked and pursue wealth, no matter who or what gets destroyed in the process.”

“To this class of wealth builders; any means always justify the end. Such people, only build wealth for their perceived pleasure, without giving happiness, to others, except to themselves. Indeed, negative wealth builders can be found at times, to build wealth without spreading happiness even to their immediate families. Their immediate families may be suffering pain, hardship, without an iota of care by them”.

“The category wealth-builders for which this series is addressed are the positive wealth builders. Positive wealth-builders are those who live their lives meaningfully, in line with Professor Seligman’s school of positive psychology. Positive wealth-builders, habitually give more than receive. They spread out happiness, love, and joy to others while building and holding on to wealth”.

“Positive wealth-builders make it their philosophy to develop others, make others happy, develop their society, develop their nation and make a significant difference in the life of many others in the world. Anyone who has been able to create a business, which employs other individuals, put food on their table and even go beyond that to give out part of their wealth to the society, has grown beyond being just a tree branch but into being a huge tree. By so doing, they contribute to society’s wealth distribution system. We thus need to celebrate a few of them here”.

My friend paused for some time to sip from the cup of freshly squeezed orange juice on the table by his side. I quickly threw in this question: Why then do people hold on to wealth?

My friend continued: “The pursuit of building wealth is a lifetime process. You do not build wealth and stop, you continue to build wealth all your life. However, as you build wealth you use wealth to make others happy and not only one’s self. Positive wealth-builders, build wealth and pursue such building of wealth, as a lifestyle, but still make it a duty all their lives, to give and give to society and others, to spread happiness, love and joy to others. So, holding onto wealth is not evil. You hold onto wealth to use it as working capital, in building more wealth. However, part of the wealth built should be used for others, to spread happiness, joy, give inspiration and build others into wealth builders”.

“I have discovered that when real God’s ambassadors, those who have gone through the process of being buried in the ground as seed, give, they hardly draw attention to themselves. But in Nigeria and a few other countries when those who call themselves philanthropists donate some pieces of computers to schools or donate boreholes to some communities, they usually call a world press conference. Truly, those are not God’s ambassadors. They are more or less politicians who must draw attention to themselves even for frivolous donations. As the Bible says: they have received their rewards”.

“I have also discovered one thing. God usually opens the windows of financial favour to all his true ambassadors. The reason is simple. Those genuine entrepreneurs have had hearts transplants: they have flushed away from their hearts negative virtues such as hatred, unforgiveness, wrath, envying, and such like and have imbibed virtues such as love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance and such like. As such they have aligned their thought process and mindsets with that of God. They think the way God would think and interpret events the way God would interpret events. God knows that when he allows financial abundance to come their way, they would dispense it to good causes.

“Interestingly, have you not noticed that those who embrace God’s way of distributing resources always end up having more? Warren Buffet has given over 90% of his money to charity and has also instructed that 20 years after his death nothing should be found in his bank accounts. He has successfully recruited other kind-hearted givers to embrace that lifestyle. And you know the interesting thing? He has continued to feature on the list of the world’s richest persons. They understand the way God’s kingdom economy functions and God sees to it that they never lack”.

I also asked my Billionaire Friend Why people underestimate the potential God has endowed them with?

His response: “People generally underestimate their potential of ignorance. God has given us a brain so that we can reason with him but unfortunately, most people suspend and abandon their critical thinking ability. This situation is largely found in Nigeria, where problems are commonly referred to God for solution. We all employ artisans, who on being confronted with challenges, would rather leave the solutions to God rather than put their thinking cap on, and do some critical thinking to find solutions to the challenges confronting them. We must realise that God has endowed man with everything he needs, to face the challenges of life, through thinking, reasoning, and finding answers to daily problems with requiring only the blessing of God after efforts have been made by man, for solutions to the problems and challenges faced. People therefore generally underestimate the gift God has planted in man to critically think, reason and work hard to find solutions to their daily challenges, rather than solely waiting for God to solve virtually every problem of theirs without work. The proclamation of God in earlier referred part of the book of Genesis, clearly shows that God has endowed us with everything we need to manage this earth”.

What can we do to awaken the giants in us?

“To awaken the giants in us requires the acquisition of knowledge and continuous learning. Knowledge acquisition and learning, are very vital in awaking the giant in us. We need to extensively learn, read, interact with each other, relate with mentors and ensure that reading and knowledge acquisition is a lifetime goal. The more exposed one is to knowledge, the more we awaken the giants in us”.

As we rounded off the conversation, my Billionaire friend also shared his own experience about building wealth to give out.

“I cannot tell you per se when I came about this principle about life, but I can tell you that I wrote my will at only thirty-two (32) years of age. When I discovered that the whole essence of life is empty and that the little wealth I had built should go to help those whom I would leave behind, of my immediate family and my society in general. I thus wrote my will at the age of thirty-two (32) which clearly shows how early, I came about this principle of life and living. This principle has very much helped me to be useful to many in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. I have used my little knowledge and resources to help lift many people”.

How can people be initiated into this rhyme of thinking?

“I guess this is one of the reasons for this series. The more people read from those of us who hold this principle, the more they learn and the more it would help to spread this important philosophy of meaningful living. We must all realise that we came to this world with nothing and we will leave it with nothing. We must make arrangements for the little we have acquired through building wealth, so that we do not get caught suddenly, in the way some people have been caught leaving humongous wealth behind, without making arrangements with how that wealth should be wisely distributed. Such negligence is not good for society, it is not good for one’s family, and it is not good for the world. Efforts should be made at every stage of our consciousness, that we shall not live forever”.

My Billionaire Friend and I agreed that the necessary foundation has been laid by our wealth building series and we can take off to some next phases in subsequent editions.
STOP PRESS! Don’t forget to share your feedback with us. My Billionaire Friend is eager to know how this series has impacted you and what you would like us to improve. Kindly spare just two minutes to share your feedback with us by filling the form here. Just two minutes. Click the link below:
https://bit.ly/CWMBFAA

See you next week!
Yours money wisely
ayo.arowolo@thisdaylive.com

QUOTE 1

That is the way God breeds all his ambassadors. There is no shortcut. The way to the top is down first. When the woman in the labour room eventually gives birth to a baby, she is flooded with joy and happiness that cannot be described unless you experience it personally.

QUOTE 2

I have discovered that when real God’s ambassadors, those who have gone through the process of being buried in the ground as seed, give, they hardly draw attention to themselves. But in Nigeria and a few other countries when those who call themselves philanthropists donate some pieces of computers to schools or donate boreholes to some communities, they usually call a world press conference. Truly, those are not God’s ambassadors. As the Bible says: they have received their rewards.

QUOTE 3

I have also discovered one thing. God usually opens the windows of financial favour to all his true ambassadors. The reason is simple. Those genuine entrepreneurs have had hearts transplants: they have flushed away from their hearts negative virtues and have aligned their thought process and mindsets with that of God. They think the way God would think and interpret events the way God would interpret events. God knows that when he allows financial abundance to come their way, they would dispense it to good causes.