There are three tones to the color of money. The first is
the tint that most people in the civilised world are aware of. It is the
accumulation of material hardware and symbolic items such as properties and
money. Those who are familiar only with the first tone will look at wealth in a
single-dimensional manner - it can be (and, for many, will be) grown through
vehicles such as investment, savings, business.
The second tone is the subtler and often unnoticed aspect of
wealth - that it is like a stream that courses through the land, bringing life
to flora, feeding animals and other creatures along the food chain. Wealth
creates the opportunity for life, specifically growth in other areas of life
such as health, happiness and contentment.
The third and final tone of wealth is almost invisible like
the sheen that dew produces on the blades of grass in the early hours of dawn.
It pervades the air and coats all blades alike without discrimination, and in
so doing distributes the enrichment that the stream brings to the land.
There are plenty of wealthy individuals such as Warren
Buffett and Lee Kong Chian who have spent their entire lives accumulating
wealth in the worldly sense only to then dedicate and relinquish the mass of
their fortunes to philantrophy purposes. They have experienced the first two
tones of the color of wealth in their accumulation and the benefits of their
material possessions. Through the final relinquishing of their fortunes, they
see the third tone of the color of wealth.
The true power of wealth lies in the third tone - the
distribution of material wealth. Human nature however leads one directly to
first tone and parks him there. Often, only those who have accumulated excess
material wealth start to contemplate the second tone. And upon realisation of
the true nature of wealth, they begin to see the almost invisible third tone of
the color.
What is the main purpose of this post? The idea is that in
order to maximise your wealth creation capabilities, you need to understand the
role of wealth and the three tones of the color of wealth. When the right
understanding sets in, you will work on creating wealth with the right
motivation and right intentions.
This allows you to tap into the right places in the virtuous
and vicious cycles of the world that we are all trapped in, for the benefit of
not just yourself but others as well. In this way, you optimise globally
instead of locally where your efforts are injected and you and everyone else
can reap the returns in both the short-term and long-term.
