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MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING; BUT STATE OF MIND IS

Everyone is looking for a way to advance their financial position, power and influence, from which come other personal benefits. With very few exceptions all ambitions in diverse areas of life worldwide are aimed ultimately at multiplying economic resources endlessly. Probably only two other goals rival the lure of money for life satisfaction. These would be the pursuit of sexual pleasure and surrendering to religious obligations. Of the three money appears to have the one most people accept and publicly pursue, which gives it greater universal goal-attainment value than sex or religion or both. Why is this the case?

In all communities in the world people need money to survive. Undoubtedly many want financial prosperity also because from learning about or seeing the comfortable and lavish lifestyle of the rich and famous they believe the same will be true for them if only they can find a way to acquire the required wealth.

Evidently the vast majority of people all over the world pursue wealth because they believe it provides contentment and happiness. The truth is that money does not guarantee happiness. When we look at the financial situation of people who kill themselves it is not just poor people who do so though it is interesting that only the suicide death of a German billionaire appears to have been reportedly blamed on the near total loss of his wealth. Several millionaires and numerous celebrities however have reportedly died by suicide. Something did not make life worth living despite their wealth! Nevertheless in the general population, millions live unhappy and dissatisfied lives and in futile hope of becoming financially independent. The lure of wealth seems practically unavoidable.

It is not only the seduction and other emotional effects of money that may cause havoc in a society but the strong desire for money can also change people on many levels. One level is that of integrity. Let’s take a look at how it could “innocently” undermine the honesty of individuals, say, in the news media. For the purpose of illustration we will consider a newly hired reporter who soon discovers there are certain people and areas of social life that the news organization where he started working just doesn’t criticize. That newbie must decide what to do or whether to bring it up at all at the office when faced with credible information of an unsavory nature about a taboo person or organization. Consideration of job security and upward mobility in the organization (a way to acquire money) may lead the reporter to “toe the line” of his employer and use supportive professional ideas to rationalize not responding to the tip. So begins the internalization as normal or inevitable the manipulation of the news and corruption of the young reporter. Many in the same organization up the seniority line do the same, expecting the same of subordinates; and some over time become comfortable in that culture. As such an individual who started as naïve, honest and eager for job success may end up after some years as an untrustworthy senior reporter who, motivated by personal prosperity, feeds the public censored or distorted news. Dishonesty that was previously not among this person’s qualities now is and may be comfortably accepted.

Some people could reject that value system and quit. Realistically however, depending the state of the economy and/or their level of seniority many such people would likely rule out job change as impractical, though never really clearly capitulating to the questionable organizational norm while continually looking for a viable job opportunity. Nonetheless, in such settings either one works as a happy, unscrupulous and corrupt employee or an unhappy unwillingly corrupt one. In other words either way money has changed the individual’s sense of integrity. On the other hand the workplace may have squeaky clean moral values but one or more employees may not and secretly use devious methods to achieve success, usually motivated by money. Many will claim these eventualities cannot be helped in the rat race to acquire prosperity; but that is because they are not considering that money isn’t everything. As the best means to ensure the happiness we desire it may never be sufficient and does often disappoint and/or corrupt.

 

A New System That Benefits Everyone

Therefore we need a solution to reducing the virtually invincible power of money in societies all over the world, while keeping the goal of being happy. According to this alternate idea to mainstream business practices people are the capital: Human capital! Ultimately, a person and a group’s level of emotional resilience provides the credit and profit rating. The more robust a person’s emotional condition the higher their proceeds. The old way has been to provide monetary capital and develop systems to guide the generation of income within the special context(s) created by or available to the investor. The cost of the administrative systems intended to maximize performance within this system however, actually can be high without eliminating liability.

The new school of thought proposes that we consider human involvement as part of the investment capital (rather than just the financial contribution) to build a new transactional structure.

To manage conformity, honesty and productivity and maintain this alternate administrative process we use the power of the intact emotional wellness of the people. It will mean then that any individual with this quality from the population at large chosen for work will already be equipped for trustworthy productivity with the least risk of any liability. Everyone in business and government will be goal-oriented, non-litigious and easily satisfied. Everybody will profit in this new economy. The proposed system requires society to commit to bring the skills of peace of mind to everyone, unconditionally.

With the capabilities and tools we have, we can achieve the goal of emotional wellbeing for EVERYONE in our lifetime. Mental peace is more desirable and much cheaper to mass-produce, with none of the negative consequences encountered in acquiring and maintaining economic prosperity. Since almost everyone now, especially political leaders everywhere, pursues money it has remained at the root of almost all of society’s problems. That is because our emotional state directs almost everything we think, say or do. If this is not healthy, everything that depends on it will be faulty, including how we see, acquire or use wealth.

The global economy is unpredictable; and probably more so at this point due to the domino effects and backlash of protectionism. An anti-wealth revolution continues to reveal itself in subtle as well as relatively open ways because of unequal access to money by the disadvantaged and socially disgruntled. Such issues call for creativity in the marketplace. Monetary capital is constantly in danger of being eroded and profits are under pressure in such a climate, while the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. There is therefore a need to examine another avenue of investment, such as the proposal to apply human capital in a complementary economy. There are huge advantages in changing course from business as usual to a new way of making profit. This is transition time.

 

Producing and Using Human Capital

Right now, the only path to a softer life is through obtaining money, with methods with which we are familiar and results most people believe will produce happiness, although the majority does not benefit from the joy of wealth. Nonetheless, many will find it very difficult to take seriously the idea of a different route to happiness. Many however, will acknowledge that it’s getting harder and harder for ordinary people to make ends meet let alone become wealthy. So we need a system in which everyone will be happy regardless of whether a person has lots of money or not. The current state of uncertainty and fear makes now a good time to consider regrouping to emerge with a new strategy that will not advantage or disadvantage any one group or class and allow everyone equal access to authentic happiness, always. Switching to human capital as the basis for profit making through the emotional resilience of people will provide a prosperous and egalitarian economic system. In order to realize and utilize it however, the human capital needs to be developed and structured.

In the first place, in the planning of most organizations consideration of employee peace of mind (PoM) or happiness is absent. Lack of PoM means an organization is not using the employee’s full potential and therefore limiting its margin of profitability. Increasing PoM or inner peace (IP) among employees (the other name for it is Happiness) will produce bigger profits because feeling good means better productivity. Several powerful research studies support these facts.

Secondly, to make people ‘do the right thing’, that is, work hard, be honest, content and offer their best service requires grooming their thinking for the best results. Using intrinsically happy individuals to generate profits will always be superior to monetary capital and extrinsically happy or dissatisfied people. A groomed individual will always guarantee the new world investor increased value in productivity because this person will always present with conformity, honesty, productivity motivation and creativity, without fluctuation or liability. The special grooming will be dependable and successful as a business tool because employees want happiness for themselves. We need to groom or develop human capital using PoM/IP as the assessment tool. Put simply, this is about every person consciously and deliberately monitoring and managing their emotional reactions in partnership with governments, social, business and philanthropic organizations and other community groups providing educational programs that teach PoM/IP universally.

A Profitable Investment That Manages Itself

This process will produce a new valuation of people’s worth; and their value will become the new money, which will make PoM/IP and the skills it engenders the new currency for investment purposes. The empowerment that money provided old school were wealth and progress. On the other side of that coin, instead of bringing PoM/IP or happiness to everyone, to a large extent the pursuit of monetary power probably explains historical evils such as the Slave Trade, major wars including the Crusades, the heinous barbarism perpetrated by terrorist groups, continuation of human trafficking and economic colonialism. Safeguarding or hoarding financial economic power as the goal also appears to contribute to the pace and nature of post-war reconstruction and third world stagnation. PoM/IP on the other hand as capital transcends politics, religion, race and economic philosophy.

Initially, very likely it will require time for a transition to the new system, during which time the unscrupulous will try to use the old methods of manipulation to subvert the new system or “prove” mostly to themselves that it is just as easy to subject the new way to the old world trickery and crookedness. The growing resilience of the new method however will soon paralyze their dishonesty and convert them; because PoM/IP will be acceptable to everyone and will genuinely change and truly unite all of us everywhere. With this new supporting capital something of value will always return to individuals and organizations. When you bequeath human PoM/IP capitalism to others your gift is certain to remain untainted, viable and profitable. Anything you add to that capital, keep for yourself, share or give away will always bare fruit sustainably.