We all have books in our library. Some are books that you’ve never read and probably never will. Others you have read over and over. There are some books in my library that I would be very cautious about lending since I would definitely want them back.

One such a book is “Tuesdays with Morrie” a story told by sports journalist, Mitch Albom. Mitch tells us about how we catches up with Morrie Schwarz, his former lecturer from University,  after twenty years. He spends the final months of the old man’s life asking questions about the meaning of  life and other philosophical issues. The old man sees his life differently now that he only has a short time to live and as you can imagine, teaches the young man that the important things in life are not the amount of riches you accumulate but what you make of your life. You can see Mitch speaking in this short YouTube video.

One of the other books I won’t easily let go is ” The Richest Man in Babylon”. In 1926, George Samuel Clason published a series of pamphlets written in parables that was set in the ancient city of Babylon.  The book became known as “The Richest Man in Babylon” and has become a classic in financial literature.  Some of the lessons imparted from those parables are:

  1. Pay Ourselves First ( “Start thy purse to fattening.”)
  2. Live below our means. (“Control thy expenditures”)
  3. Make our money work for us.(“Make thy gold multiply”)
  4. Invest in ourselves. (“Increase thy ability to earn.”)

You can see that each book addresses what we should be doing with our life, coming from two completely different directions. Which one is right? Is there a right or wrong?

Can both co-exist?  You might be the cynic like me who thinks that people who just can’t make it in business hide in the refuge of saying “money doesn’t matter” while those who make lots of money seem to have this cheeky luxury of being able to say “money isn’t everything”

Steve Jobs, a one-in-a-hundred year business phenomenon, was able to do both. This quote from his Stanford address  says it all:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle…

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Wouldn’t you be lucky if the thing you chose to do because you loved it gave you this sort of satisfaction…and results? And remember that Jobs was never motivated by money. Ain’t it the way – the guys that chase the money often don’t get it and those that  just do “great stuff” often end up with truckloads of it.

That’s life. Until next time…Tony (If you get time have a look at some free stuff we have on our site that shows you how to build wealth in your business)

ps here’s the Stanford address:

15 minutes but worth listening to if you haven’t already. Grab a tea or coffee and take the time.