A Quick Anecdote About Getting Into Shape
When I was a Junior Doctor, I would often say bye to the receptionists and admin team on my way out for the day. They’re usually sat near the exit of any given ward or clinic, so it would be awkward to not at least nod and smile. This was my usual method of exit. However, sometimes even if you’re in a rush and have had a grueling shift there’s an unspoken expectation that you should spend some time to speak with the rest of the team.
On one of these occasions the conversation turned to my eating habits. Now I’m a bit of a fitness guy, so I can look at a piece of food and guesstimate it’s caloric content and macronutrient composition. Anyone serious about reaching fitness goals are aware of these basic concepts and are mindful about what they introduce into their system.
When I was explaining that I had a nice chicken stew with beans waiting for me at home that evening, the receptionist said:
“If I were as slim as you, I wouldn’t watch what I eat…”.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I think this single sentence perfectly sums up why so many people are clinically obese, unhappy and poor.
The simple truth is that I am in shape and fit because of my diet and lifestyle. The very fact that the person I was speaking to would not watch what she would eat if she herself was slim is the very reason she will never be slim. The outcome is a result of the process. The process will change the way you perceive food and your relationship with food. Food for me is a source of energy to allow me to function at a higher level. Yes it is also a pleasurable experience, but the overall benefits I can feel by consuming wholesome foods far outweighs any short-lived dopamine burst from a diet entirely composed of McDonald’s.
Being healthy doesn’t mean you can’t still derive pleasure from food…
Your Perception of Money
Here’s the thing. The attitude towards diet illustrated above is the same reason why people don’t get rich. How many times have you heard people say the following:
“If I were rich I would stop working!”
The very fact that you would stop working is the reason you will not get rich. Your relationship with money is a destructive, warped one. In the same way that most people eat for pleasure, most people only use money for consumerism i.e. buying creature comforts.
If one can accept the fact that perhaps people in rural India perceive money in a radically different way to how the majority of the west perceive money, then it is reasonable that the very rich perceive money in a very different way to the majority of the west.
People in rural India see money as a means of survival. To put food in their stomachs and provide the essentials for their family.
The majority of people in the west see money as a means of consuming ever more products and services. Most of what is consumed by the majority in the west are non-essential.
How Rich People Perceive Money
I’ve had this conversation many times with different people. Most people get defensive when I point out that they are not as frugal as they claim to be. People may believe that the clothes they buy are “essentials”, but when asked how many shirts they have which they do not wear or have not ever worn, they go quiet. They go quieter still when I ask where they buy their shirts. “You bought your shirt from Zara? Why didn’t you get your shirt from the supermarket for a much cheaper price? Why do you buy branded cereal when the supermarket own brands are basically the same and are much cheaper?”.
If you can answer these questions objectively then you’re getting much closer to how to perceive money.
Most people at this point have a knee jerk reaction. “Shirts from the supermarket aren’t as durable…..I can taste the difference between supermarket branded cereal and the branded cereal”. Really? Have you carried out double-blind randomised trials to prove this point?
Most of the time the difference is zero. In fact, I know some factory owners who manufacture clothes in Bangladesh (the second largest textiles producer in the world) and most clothes – even a lot of the high-end designer products come from the same place with a different brand stamped on at the end.
No, the reason you purchase the higher end stuff and not the cheapest option is your perceived value of what you are buying.
And this is the closest to the truth.
Money is the exchange of perceived “value”.
And when you realise that “value” is not the cost of the bare components of a product – but the branding, the feel, the service you receive, the customer support etc it becomes apparent that you can actually create value.
What Does This All Mean??!
The point I am trying to make is that money is used by rich people as a means to an end. It is not the end goal in and of itself. America as a nation gets this much more than anywhere else in the world.
Money is used by rich people to exchange value.
They hire people with money (aka value tokens) to create their products and services.
These workers create even more value, which society then consumes.
More value for society results in more income for the business which results in more job and more money (value tokens) for everyone in society to create more wealth and value.
Value tokens are used by most people in society to just consume, but this is the same as eating pizza to get slim.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford once famously raised the wages for his workers to $5. This at the time was double the minimum wage. The other factory owners were outraged. “If Henry Ford raises wages, then all our workers will leave! We’ll also have to raise our wages too!” they said in outrage.
Later on Ford was taken to court for wanting to reduce the dividends provided by his company to certain shareholders and grow his company further. He understood that giving higher wages would encourage his workers to give their best and that paying less dividends would allow him to create even more value.
There is a transcript from court which illustrates precisely how successful business people view money (Henry Ford in this instance) and how the majority of people perceive money (Attorney Stevenson). If more people could view money in the way Henry Ford did, then the world would be a much better place.
Attorney Stevenson (AS): “Now, I will ask you again, do you still think that those profits were “awful profits” (Stevenson was quoting Ford from a Detroit News interview)?”
Henry Ford (HF): “Well, I guess I do, yes.”
AS: “And for that reason you were not satisfied to continue to make such awful profits?”
HF: (Ford looking apologetic) “We don’t seem to be able to keep the profits down.”
AS: “…Are you trying to keep them down? What is the Ford Motor Company organised for except profits, will you tell me, Mr Ford?”
HF: “Organised to do as much good as we can, everywhere, for everybody concerned.”
AS: Stevenson again asked what the “purpose” of Ford’s company was.
HF “Give employment, and send out the car where the people can use it… and incidentally to make money…Business is a service, not a bonanza.”
AS: “Incidentally make money?”
HF: “Yes, sir.”
AS: (In a sarcastic tone) “But your controlling feature…is to employ a great army of men at high wages, to reduce the selling price of your car, so that a lot of people can buy it at a cheap price, and give everyone a car that wants one?”
HF: (Ford destroys the argument by agreeing with it) “If you give all that, the money will fall into your hands; you can’t get out of it.”
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