Is it wrong to desire wealth?

By Isaiah O’Connor

This is a very important question that I have found forms a large part of peoples world view. This one even bleeds into many aspects of our life, how we run our business, how we choose our career, how we handle our finances and even how we make political choices.

This actually goes along with my last two posts. Wealth can bring power, and danger and like both of these it is a tool. Why you want it and how you use it makes the determination.

Dave Ramsey uses a great example. Money is like a brick. It is amoral. It has no morals. You can take it and build a School with it, or you could put it through a window. The brick does not care. It is a brick. Having a lot of money does not make you good, having a lot of money does not make you evil.  He also states that all having money does is amplify who you are. If your a good person, money gives you the ability to do great things. If you are a bad person you can do evil things.

This may sound basic however it is important. There is an idea out there that if you are wealthy especially as a businessman/entrepreneur you are somehow inherently greedy and thus evil. It does not matter if you give a lot to charity or employee hundreds if not thousands of people, some will see you as greedy simply because of your success.

However, by all accounts, the majority of the wealthy in America are first-generation rich, Small business owners, who are simply wise with there money, and spend the majority of there free time with there family. They also are very generous and give a lot of money to charitable organizations.  

But this is not what you see on T.V. or in the movies in general. The bad guy is very often, if not the most often portrayed as some evil greedy businessman. In real life, this is rarely the case. Sure you have greedy individuals and corporations that are run with a greedy mindset however, this the exception that proves the rule, but not the rule in and of itself.

So it is my opinion that wanting to become wealthy with the right motivations is not greedy.  This is coming from a person who is a devoted Christian. I know this may sound strange as many quote the Bible “Money is the root of all evil.” However, that verse is misquoted and mistranslated a bit. What it says is this “For the Love of money, is the root of all evil.” Some translations even specify that its all kinds/types of evil, not all evil. So it is the love of money, not money in and of itself that is the root of a lot of but not all evil.  Taken in context the chapter is about people who use their spiritual influence to become wealthy, not as a general rule of life. Matter of fact the Bible has many examples of extremely wealthy individuals who were not greedy and used their wealth responsibly.

So here is the deal. If you think that somehow just being financially successful will make you greedy and evil, you will tend to subconsciously sabotage your own success.  If you believe that “Greed is Good” as they say in the Wolf of Wall Street, you may succeed but wind up in a bad spot in the end. Somewhere in between is the idea that you want to become wealthy in able to use it to take care of your family and others in need. This needs to be the goal. Not the money in and of itself, but the ability to do good in the world.

In a nutshell;

You need to own your wealth, and not let it own you.

This is a deep subject and there are books that cover it in much more detail such as “The Legacy Journey” by Dave Ramsey, or “Thou Shalt Prosper” by Rabbi Daniel Lapin that I can highly suggest.  

So how do you fight greed? You fight it by being generous. That will be the subject of my next post.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur

Isaiah O’Connor