Why It Pays to Shun Greed

“Make yourself an honest man and then you may be sure there is one rascal less in the world.” –Thomas Carlyle

People do unethical things more out of greed than anything else. It is because of greed that people cut corners, cheat and generally do things that demean their persons and put their businesses in jeopardy. Greed makes people shun ethics, bend the truth, take undue and unnecessary risks for instant gratification. It is greed that lures people into gambling and many other negative vices. Remember the parable of the straw that broke the camel’s back? That is what greed does to the greedy. The following story best illustrates the danger of excessive greed.

“A wealthy farmer was once offered all the land he could walk on in a day provided he returned by sundown to the point at which he started. To get a head start, early the next morning, the farmer started covering ground quickly because he wanted to get as much land as he could. Even though he was tired, he kept going all afternoon because he didn’t want to lose this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain more wealth. Late in the afternoon, he remembered that the condition he had to fulfill to get the land was to get back to the starting point by sundown. His greed had gotten him far from the starting point. He started his return journey, keeping an eye on how close he was to sundown. The closer it got to sundown, the faster he ran. He was exhausted and out of breath and he pushed himself beyond the point of endurance. He collapsed upon reaching the starting point and died. He did make it before sundown. He was buried and all the land he needed was a small plot.” Adapted from Shiv Khera, “You can Win”

Let me add that even though this farmer was already wealthy before this extremely greedy adventure, no portion of his wealth followed him into the grave.

 

How Valuable Are You?

“If I were you, I would stand for something. I would count.” -- Benjamin E. Mays

Quite an intriguing question! We are told by the scriptures that God created man “in his own image and likeness.” If this does not put a final seal on the immense value of man, I hardly know what else will. If man is this valuable, he obviously must be the ultimate resource. The Brain is man’s most valuable possession. This is what confers superiority on him over and above other creatures. Man has used his Brain to master and dominate all other creatures. Man has mastered the air and harnessed it for travel, power generation and many other uses. He has traveled to the moon and sent missions to other planets. Day in day out, man continues to expand the frontiers of knowledge with the use of his Brain. For the past 100 years alone, man has made more progress at discovering new frontiers than at any other time in human history. The human Brain sure has no limits to its quest for knowledge. A man is what he knows and his Brain is the engine room that drives his knowledge machine. This is what determines his usefulness to society. The day man stops thinking, that is probably the day the world will experience a state of atrophy. Join me in a journey into history and you will get to appreciate more the value of man and his mind.

Within the last century alone, the Wright brothers invented the Airplane which pioneered air travel. This was in 1903. In 1905, a British scientist Sir John Fleming invented the Radio which has made information to travel faster around the world. In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming another Briton invented Penicillin an antibiotic which has saved many human lives. Within the same century also many other inventions like the Computer, Radar, DDT, Polaroid Camera, Solar Battery, Transistor, Laser and several other valuable products were invented as proof of the power of the human mind. The list is simply endless. Man has infinite capabilities. World famous motivational writer Napoleon Hill wrote that “You can be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe; the mind can achieve.” Look around you; the tall and short buildings you are seeing, the cars on the road, the motorcycles and bicycles you see were all made by man. The original idea for each started from one person’s mind. They acted on their thoughts and you and I are today the ultimate beneficiaries. The Computer, man’s wonder invention in the 20^th century though capable of performing many amazing feats is yet to match the power of the human brain. Since all persons are endowed with brains as wonderful gifts from our Maker, is it not puzzling why some are poor and some are rich?

Limitations of Money

“The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart” -- Helen Keller

Here now are some of the most important things you can not acquire with money.

A home: Money can and has built the most beautiful houses on this planet but certainly not homes. As you walk along the streets every day, you see many houses but among all these are very few homes. Houses are built with physical, visible and aesthetic materials but homes are built with important but intangible things like love, peace and harmony and the spirit of wellbeing. All these money can not buy.

Wisdom: Money can buy all the books in this word. It can hire the best teachers around but it can not buy wisdom. It can pay for the best schools but it can not make you wise. This is the main reason why anybody can make money buy very few can retain and grow it. That a man is rich does not necessarily make him a wise-man. Money has never been known to buy anyone wisdom.

Happiness: Money can pay for entertainment. It can pay for any type of amusement but it can not buy happiness. Happiness is a thing of the mind that can not be touched. It can only be felt. He who feels it knows it. Many rich people live unhappy lives while many poor people live happily within their means.

Sleep: Money can buy a good bed, provide the best ambience in a room but it can not buy sleep. Most of the wealthiest men and women around can not sleep well without drug inducement which damages their health on the long run.

Appetite: Money can buy the best food around but it can not buy appetite. Many intangible but very important things like good health and peace of mind are the primary determinants of good appetite. All these money can not buy.

Health: Money can buy the best medicine, pay the best doctors and pay for the best hospitals but it certainly can not buy health. If it could, no rich man will ever fall sick.

Marriage: Money can buy you a beautiful and expensive wedding ring but not marriage. Love and affection which are the bed-rocks of any successful marriage are things of the mind and they can not be bought with money.

Friends: Money can provide companions, praise-singers and sycophants but not friends. Friendship is a symbiotic relationship and it requires mutual collaboration and self-respect which money can not buy.

Beauty: Money can buy you the best clothes, cosmetics and general fineries but it can not buy you beauty. The good Lord Himself is in charge of beauty factory and every one knows He does not take bribes and He can not be bought. Many people have paid the supreme price trying to alter their looks by cosmetic surgery. The beauty business is today a multi-billion dollar business all over the world, all in vain attempts to alter God’s hand-work. Their success rate is dismal and it is there for all to see.

Time: Money can buy you a clock but not time. God is a God of equity hence the rich and the poor have only 24 hours in a day. No amount of money can buy additional minute for anyone no matter how rich. Time waits for no one whether rich or poor. God credits us with equal amounts on daily basis. This is what it has been and what it will forever be.

Do You Know That Wealth is a Choice?

By the way, so is poverty. The choice of whether to be rich or poor is open to everyone no matter his race, sex or color. What you get is through deliberate efforts not by chance. Chance numbers only work in a casino. Anyone who gambles with his or her life must pay a stiff price at the end of the day. The person, who has the best idea, does the best business and consequently makes the most money. This has little or nothing to do with your physical strength and or composition. It is purely a mind and action thing. 

Psychologists generally agree that “there is a deep tendency in human nature to become precisely like that which you habitually imagine yourself to be.”  If you avoid thinking poor, you can avoid poverty. Anybody can therefore make money and be wealthy if they do the right things with the requisite passion. There are no obstacles to making money other than those in your mind. If the mind is subject to everyone’s control, why should some people be jobless and poor? People who choose to apply themselves positively make money while those who refuse or neglect to apply themselves usefully and adequately remain poor. This choice is open to everyone. It is a matter of choice not chance.