How many ways are there for you or I to acquire, come into, or what we commonly call make money?
Let’s count the ways.
One – We can be given money. Giving is prevalent amongst family and intimate friends. While people love to receive easy money, rarely is money given freely without strings attached. Still being given money is an extremely popular way of acquiring funds.
Two – We can take money. The prevailing Darwinian worldview suggests everything is a competition. And it seems the competition for an ever-bigger piece of the pie is the hottest game in town. People are endlessly creative coming up with ways of relieving others of their money.
Three – We can make money. Rather than using “make” as a synonym for acquiring money, here I refer to “make” as creating value and serving. Creating value and serving other people is how wealth is created and ultimately how money is made.
You and I can acquire money is one of three ways: be given it; compete with others to take it; or create and serve to make it. The more people focus on creating and serving, the more wealth we create and the better off we all are.
Unfortunately, too few people understand this fundamental distinction regarding money.
One camp, supported by a host of influential people, eagerly promotes money as something-for-nothing. Another camp, equally supported by influential people, sees acquiring money as the consummate competition and whether by hook or by crook they are going to secure as much for themselves as possible. The productive, beneficial, life-affirming perspective of money is that it is a tool to facilitate the creation and exchange of value amongst human beings.
Money, real money, is a currency of trust. Making money is a function of creating something for or providing a service to other people; a product or service other people value. To acquire what they value people gladly exchange currency – money.
At its core money is comprised of two wholly psychological elements: a willingness to create and exchange value; and enough trust in others to trade.
Society advances economically, politically, socially, and spiritually when people freely create and share their creations. This is the domain of “making” money.
The farther we as individuals or as a society move away from “making” money – that is creating and sharing value – and misguidedly move toward taking money or expecting something-for-nothing, the more we erode trust. As trust erodes relationships and society crumbles.
How many ways are there to “make” money?
Only one: CREATE AND SERVE.
I hope you have a great weekend doing the best you can with what you’ve got!
Love, Scott