“The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.” – Andrew Carnegie
We left off yesterday with a serious question: What’s the point?
We’re talking the philosophy of money this week. And I suggested yesterday that the true purpose of money is to acquire assets. Only then will we have the financial security we need to take care of ourselves and our families should our active income go away.
But the goal isn’t simply security. The ultimate goal is financial independence. We want to create a financial situation that allows us to walk away from our job or our active business at any time, should we choose to do so.
Still, even this falls short of answering our big question.
Do we seek financial success just because we want to quit our job and pursue entertainment every day? No – that path is hollow and unfulfilling. Anyone who has retired without productive hobbies can attest to this.
To me, financial success is about becoming a fully autonomous actor in this world. I believe that’s what Carnegie hinted at in his quote above. Taking full possession of one’s mind requires us to be financially independent. Our time and energy must be 100% our own.
If we can create such a situation, that’s when we’ll be completely free to pursue our calling… whatever that may be.
The late Gary North used to talk about this a lot. He often referenced the difference between a job and a calling.
Your job puts food on the table and pays the bills. Your calling is that one productive thing in life that you can do better than everybody else. Or at least almost everybody else.
At the end of the day, it’s all about living a purpose-driven life. And that’s how we steward our civilization another generation forward.
Those of us in developed countries today are blessed to live in a world of abundance. Most of us probably take this for granted, but we shouldn’t. We owe those who came before us an immense debt of gratitude for the foundation they left us with.
I had the chance to sit down and talk with my 96-year old grandmother over the weekend. She grew up on a self-sufficient farm in rural Oklahoma from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. That means she lived on the farm through the Great Depression and World War II.
What stuck out to me though is that her parents maintained an optimistic outlook through it all. They looked out and could see the technological advancements that were coming. They knew their children wouldn’t need to be self-sufficient farmers themselves.
As such, they encouraged their children to go out into the world and walk their own path. And that’s exactly what my grandmother did.
So here she sits in our modern world full of gizmos, gadgets, and conveniences galore. But she remembers growing up in a house without electricity or refrigeration.
She told me she can close her eyes and still see the old root cellar to this day. That’s where they kept all their canned goods. It’s also where they would go if it looked like a tornado was coming through. Grandma said she would love nothing more than to slide down that old cellar door one more time.
My point is this – we’re not very far removed from a world that didn’t enjoy all the convenience and luxuries we have today.
It’s thanks to the hard work and perseverance of our ancestors that all of us in the developed world enjoy a life of incredible abundance. Even those of lesser means today live far more comfortable lives than everyone alive one hundred years ago.
At the same time, I think we have a responsibility to our kids, our grandkids, and those who will come after them. What can we do to leave them with the same strong foundation that we received from those who came before us?
That answer of course is different for each of us. But what I do know is that it’s a whole lot easier to take on productive projects when we have created a strong financial position for ourselves and our families. That’s where it all starts.
We’ll leave it there for today. Tomorrow we’ll talk about the lonely path to financial independence.
-Joe Withrow
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