OPINION: We should not give out money to be recognized

Different people are motivated by different goals. Many people are motivated by money, but money is only a means to an end, and when the person achieves his goal of being rich, he then has another decision to make: what does he do with his money? I bumped into a young man known as Bryan White who apparently gives out money on the basis of being recognized as someone with money.

I don’t understand this motivation, but for such people money is the means to be recognized. For most people money is the means to buy ‘stuff’, such as the latest Range Rover, or the biggest house on the hill. But all these ‘things’ are still not an end in themselves; they are perceived as the means to bring happiness, which is what people desire.

In studies carried out on people who have come into large amounts of money, it was found that their level of happiness significantly improved at first, but then it dwindled to previous levels. Lottery winners who suddenly come into large amounts of money are notorious for being unhappy, with an increased number of suicides.

When one has attained their material ambition of buying the new car, or new home, what then? For many wealthy people it is the accumulation of more wealth that becomes important, so they just keep on trying to make more money, because somehow it is never enough. But many wealthy people still never achieve happiness.

One man who is happy, but keeps on making money, is Warren Buffet, even though he has been listed as the richest man in the world and is now in his eighties. So what motivates him? He is different from many wealthy people who try to hold onto their money by gambling on the stock markets. He makes long-term investments where he buys whole companies or significant shareholdings in mega-companies like Apple or Coca Cola. He then sits on their boards and influences the direction of the companies to improve their performance.

Though he is among the richest people in the world, he still lives in the same house, and for years he drove the same second-hand car. He is not using his money to buy himself happiness and actually gives most of it away, but what drives him is that he is doing something that develops businesses.

He has also built up a huge sphere of influence because of his success and has the ear of Statesmen, politicians and business leaders, which brings me on to another thing that motivates people. Through his money Warren Buffet has attained a position of influence, which he uses for positive good in the world. However, if we take another immensely rich man, Rupert Murdock, he uses his money and his position as the head of a giant media empire, including Fox News, to manipulate people, politics and those in power. He is a kingmaker.

Others do not take the route of money to attain power. They go straight for power, which is usually attained through politics, or ‘liberation struggles’. Such struggles can be brutal and dangerous, and there is usually only one winner. But when that person gets the power, he is usually reluctant to leave, except in the case of Nelson Mandela, who was a remarkable exception to the rule. This is why many countries have adopted constitutions with term limits.

Money, influence, power and the desire to be happy are all great motivators, but surprisingly there is another basic human motivator, which brings immense satisfaction. We, as human beings, are designed to make things better for others, and for future generations. You might disagree, arguing that it is survival of the fittest that counts, but in the grand scale of things mankind would not be where we are today if it were not for the myriad of human beings who have lived to make life better for future generations.

This has been accomplished in different ways and in different fields such as medicine, politics, the law, academics, agriculture and technology – in every field one could name people have worked to build a better future. Which is why we have advanced from being cavemen, or why we have industries and technologies, which make our lives today more comfortable, and why some of us are still alive when we would have died of various diseases that previously had no cure.

So the yardstick to measure your life is simple. Am I doing something that is making life better for others, or better still, am I doing something that is making life better for future generations?