Money And The Meaning Of Life

Having money won't change your internal makeup. If you're an anxious sonofabitch without money, you're going to be an anxious sonofabitch with a lot of money.

Let's say I'm the guy sitting next to the new multimillionaire, only I joined the company six months too late for the stock options. I've got a decent salary, but I'm not rich. Where's the justice?

There is no justice. That's what's so fundamental about this question of money. It's not really a matter of being rich. It's not even about the money itself. It's about our emotions. It's a matter of envy. How do I get free from being devoured by envy? That's a question that goes back to the beginning of mankind. It isn't unique to computer companies.

Now let's go to the top of that same company. I'm the CEO and founder. I have thousands of people working for me, my picture is on the cover of "Business Week" and I have a net worth of $450 million. How do I escape being a megalomaniac?

That's an important question. I met a guy who worked his way up from zero to a half-billion dollars. I asked him, "What was the most surprising thing you discovered when you got rich?" He said, "Everybody asks my opinion about things because they think I know something. All I really know is how to make a lot of money." See, this guy wasn't fooled by his money. That's the key.

Ask people to remember the first time they ever held a large amount of money, and how it felt. Most will tell you it was like electricity flowing into their hands. I know that's how I felt the first time I held a $1,000 bill.

That excitement is something we all have to acknowledge as part of ourselves. It's important not to deny it. I'm as eager and egoistic and greedy as the next guy. The thing that is so important for these new millionaires is to see this greed not only in themselves but also in others, and to see the effect that it has on others. The more money you have the more likely you are to be surrounded by "yes" men. You must seek out people who disagree with you.

You need people around to tell you you're full of shit -- and be able to appreciate them for that. Too many successful people look with hostility upon anyone who disagrees with them. That's something they don't want to hear. That's a very big mistake.

Based on your encounters with the super-rich, is there ever a time when they can put down their egos for a moment?

Death is the great equalizer. I've seen that phenomenon many times. I've had people in my classes come to me, men and women over 50 years old, and they say, "I made it. I'm rich. But what the hell is my life for?"

In the meantime, all you really need is a couple of hemorrhoids to learn humility.

Let's go back to our hypothetical company. With the disparities in money among the team members and a CEO who's become so rich he doesn't have to listen to anyone, is it possible that we won't survive our success?

Of course. I've never seen a business problem that was truly about technology or marketing or manufacturing. It always comes down to people problems. If you're not attending to the people in the company, you may still get lucky and be successful. But you probably won't be able to maintain that success.

That's why companies sometimes implode when they go public. At that moment people succeed, but they don't know why they succeeded. They only think they know. And when the company begins to fail, they don't know why they're failing either. The only way to succeed in the long run is to have somebody at the top prepared to handle the really difficult people questions, like dealing with success.

That's true for a company. Does it also apply to an individual who has to deal with sudden wealth?

It's very hard getting rich suddenly. We all laugh and say, "I could handle it." It's one thing to say that. But it's another thing to have it happen. Mike Tyson is not the world's greatest philosopher, but he did say one thing that I think should be over everybody's desk. Years ago when he was being interviewed before the Leon Spinks fight, a reporter told him, "You know, Spinks has a plan for how to fight you." Tyson said, "They all got a plan -- until they get hit."

We all have a plan for how we'd handle getting rich -- until it happens. But we really don't know ourselves well enough to know what suddenly getting rich would do to us. People think they're going to behave a certain way with money: "This is what I would do." But when they suddenly have money, it does something to them that they didn't expect. People who win the lottery can be driven pretty crazy. I've seen it.