CONSUMPTION VS CONTRIBUTION

I haven’t been feeling like writing for a while due to deadlines that I had to meet with my work  commitments, and I apologise for that. However I just thought I should squeeze in this article because I just had another thought regarding wealth which I wanted to share with you. I was sitting at a mining site I was mildly observing the people and their work patterns which are very different from your usual office work. The operation times are different, even the respect for time is different. Objectively they hardly start on proposed time either due to it having a huge landscape thus automatically making people to over-exaggerate their travel time from one venue to the next or due to simply not feel much urgency to keep time. A "what will be done will be done, in time", whether in the appointed time or not. Lol I know it sounds like I will be talking about time management as a wealth asset, which is true, but not this time.

So as I sat waiting, I observed people and a thought of wealth classification came to me. They seem to be popping up out of nowhere. I noticed that the in most cases we invariably have defined as possessions. I know you all know this, sorry if I'm repeating the obvious, but this came when I was having a conversations with one of my former seniors in varsity that I had just met here on this site. I didn’t know he was working here and got a shock when some random person asked me “so you are done with school?” Primarily because I was caring a back pack that usually is associated with being a student, so I started having moment of “WFT?!” and so we started reminiscing about how campus was and all the good lecturers we had in our department and asked me about what company I worked for. I told him likewise and then mentioned that I am working with one of his former classmate who worked there before me, and he just weren’t straight to asking me how much he earns (as if I know) and what kind of car he now drives. Because the last time he remembers they person was driving a mini cooper, and I told him that he now drives an Audi. But as I said in the beginning we describe wealth as possession; as the kind of car you drive, the clothes you wear, the expenditures you indulge in such as how much many you can splurge in buying booze. Strangely enough there are people who regard that as wealth; how much wastage one can demonstrate is even regarded as wealth.

If we describe wealth as such things, as many of us do, we are opting for a really limited view and experience of wealth. For the same possessions of a BMW M5, seemingly ordinary clothing but overly priced, even a garbage disposal operator can surely have if he manages his time and effort well in his job. If you think as an engineer, you are far "better" than the clothing store assistant because you have certain possessions, then you are delusional, for surely that assistant can put in enough time and money, he will surely possess what you possess.

 

But should you begin to define wealth not in terms of consumption and possession but in terms of creation and contributions, then you would have tapped into what it is that makes you great. For if you measure your wealth by your own deliberate contributions and creation, only then will you truly know yourself not only as wealthy but also as free, for every creation will be your own unique contribution to society and thus bringing value. Making money is easy, everyone does it, regardless of how much is made. But making a contribution now that’s a thing of greatness. Most of us value titles more than our individual freedom to our greatness. We value money and possession more than our unique creativity. And in that manner we just take up the role of a cog in the wheel, having and accumulating false conclusions about wealth, yet always feeling the "nonevaluableness" because another can easily do and be an engineer or accounted as I am, and if they are better at the title, they will surely get better remuneration for feeling that round cog hole.

 

 

That is why I strive to refine my definition of wealth to not only include those possessions that others can easily possess – for it is nice to have them for sure – but , but to also include those creations and contributions that others won't easily imitate, because they are unique to me. There is wealth in your ideas in your contributions and I invite to a whole new definition of wealth, where it is not the title you hold but the contribution you add. And to quote one of my favourite wealth statement “Wealth is the product of a man’s ability to think.” ~ Ayn Rand. Not the money you get but the value you create, not the possessions you acquire but the possibilities you inspire. It is by time that we enter into a new definition of wealth where it is inclusive of all individuality and creativity that contributes to the collective prosperity and the wellbeing of humanity. We still have long way to go before we as a society can live in this ideal, for your bosses your teaches even your colleagues wont dare tell you this and free you from the illusion of pseudo wealth, fool’s gold, we have to start somewhere if we ever wish to have this ideal being our legacy. It starts with each of us acting each day from this ideal, from this new definition of wealth and we will be amazed on the sudden abundance of good wealth and ideas that are open to us. It is our inherent wealth.

And I had said before that the true measure of you wealth is how much you can stretch your money/ gifts and talents to touch other people’s lives and bring relief to them. It is about you r contribution and not your consumption.

Play your part. (Excuse the profanity on the pic, just wanted to shock you a bit. ;)