Motivation

The other day I was having a conversation about life goals, and the subject came up about our childhood goals. I said how when I was 14 I declared that I wanted to be a millionaire by 25. Well I’m 28, and not a millionaire, but I still want to be one. My reasoning for wanting to be one now though are vastly different from when I was 14.

I guess its a good thing that I’ve matured at least a little bit in 14 years, I do still find low-brow humor hilarious, but my motivations in life have shifted. When I was 14 and declared I wanted to be a millionaire, I thought the only reason to shoot for that goal was to buy useless shit. I thought I’d buy cars and houses and boats and other stupid crap that is purely materialistic. Now don’t get me wrong I’d still appreciate cars and boats and other baller items (though a million bucks buys FAR less of those things in 2010 than in 1996).

So why do I want to be rich now? To effect change. My ultimate goal is to leave this world a better place than I found it, to have a net-positive impact on the world if possible. Money doesn’t make you necessarily more impactful, but it affords you the opportunity to be impactful and effect change in our community. It’s great to be be able to help a few people, but wealth lets you help lots of people.

In the end my goals of amassing wealth haven’t really changed, its just the motivating factors that have.

So how have your goals changed since you were a kid?