Having briefly examined the intention of philanthropy, we need to examine the intention of wealth. This is not as easy as one might think. The intentions for growing and using wealth are as varied as the personalities that manage it.
Over the years my work as a holistic life coach has given me occasions to coach individuals of reasonably significant wealth, i.e., of a net worth of $50 – 100 million. Often this was “trust fund” money handed down to children to manage. From their histories, I found that usually self-made millionaires developed their wealth as a mechanism to explore their potential. When they had achieved that intention, they usually made plans (intentions being set into place) to leave their wealth to their children to give them a “better way in life” than they had.
The inadequacies of ego, whether of an inferior or superior complex, almost always manifest in terms of seeking authority, control and power, and when those seem insufficient, then money and/or sex are applied to compromise any resistance to their expression of authority, control and power. Usually, but not always, these individuals were molded either by role models or by their own inner drive to empower themselves in the fashion of “the traditional male.” I doubt that we will see many of the millennial generation duplicating the performance of the “robber barons” or “sharks on Wall Street.” But, what will guide these younger generations?
Whether robber barons of the early 1900s, or contemporary “sharks of Wall Street” the intentions of wealth accumulation seem to be very shallow. Yes, I’ve met many young men (less than age 45) who served their time in the pits of the stock market and then walked away with multi-millions to manage on their own and to carry them into their elder years. The intention of an “early retirement” is not a problem, to me.
The class of wealth that is of interest in these Posts is the wealth of those with assets greater than $1 billion. At that level of wealth, the consideration for retirement has long passed. For those of the X and Y generation, wealth of this magnitude often accrued from their work in high tech industries as inventors or as co-workers of technical solutions. When wealth of this magnitude comes into being, it is time to ask, “What are my intentions now for this great wealth?” I suspect that answering this question will help unravel the egregious 1% — 99% wealth disparity to prevent the walls of democracy from crashing down.
Over the years my work as a holistic life coach has given me occasions to coach individuals of reasonably significant wealth, i.e., of a net worth of $50 – 100 million. Often this was “trust fund” money handed down to children to manage. From their histories, I found that usually self-made millionaires developed their wealth as a mechanism to explore their potential. When they had achieved that intention, they usually made plans (intentions being set into place) to leave their wealth to their children to give them a “better way in life” than they had.
The inadequacies of ego, whether of an inferior or superior complex, almost always manifest in terms of seeking authority, control and power, and when those seem insufficient, then money and/or sex are applied to compromise any resistance to their expression of authority, control and power. Usually, but not always, these individuals were molded either by role models or by their own inner drive to empower themselves in the fashion of “the traditional male.” I doubt that we will see many of the millennial generation duplicating the performance of the “robber barons” or “sharks on Wall Street.” But, what will guide these younger generations?
Whether robber barons of the early 1900s, or contemporary “sharks of Wall Street” the intentions of wealth accumulation seem to be very shallow. Yes, I’ve met many young men (less than age 45) who served their time in the pits of the stock market and then walked away with multi-millions to manage on their own and to carry them into their elder years. The intention of an “early retirement” is not a problem, to me.
The class of wealth that is of interest in these Posts is the wealth of those with assets greater than $1 billion. At that level of wealth, the consideration for retirement has long passed. For those of the X and Y generation, wealth of this magnitude often accrued from their work in high tech industries as inventors or as co-workers of technical solutions. When wealth of this magnitude comes into being, it is time to ask, “What are my intentions now for this great wealth?” I suspect that answering this question will help unravel the egregious 1% — 99% wealth disparity to prevent the walls of democracy from crashing down.