The Color of Money

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.