What if money was no object? An amazingly insightful video..

In theory, this is how humanity should live.

In actuality, very few are allowed to. Be a writer, follow your bliss any not put money as a priority? Sure, sounds sweet, and they often cite the 1/100,000 very successful cases but I knew writers...and artists...who were miserable despite doing what they loved. Why? Because it sucks when you can't even afford a meal every time your hungry. It sucks being at the mercy of others because they don't follow your philosophy.

This guy gives dangerous advise. He should have a disclaimer at least.

Originally posted by msfitte
reply to post by Lightbringer38

 

Not sure what reaction you're looking for. The "do what you love/what makes you happy" is nice in theory but in practice it just doesn't work that way.

I agree...some are fortunate to do what they want and most of us are not.

But then again...it isn't that simple.

reply to post by Wolf321


That is the saddest thing I have read for ages. That you should believe that is.... well, just heart breaking.

You can choose to be free or to be a slave. If you don't know you are a slave you will never chose to be free. It is your world and it is your life. If you can be happy slaving away in a horrible job just to scrape together enough money to pay the bills then I am happy for you. If you are not happy, well perhaps for you it is too late. I don't believe that to be true, but if you do, then that is your fate. But please don't try and pass your mistakes on to the next generation, just because it is the only reality you can conceive.... Let them choose their freedom, even if you can't understand it.

reply to post by nothingwrong


I understand the premise of doing what you love, it is just unrealistic. The world I describe is not my conception of it, it is reality. The nature of reality is there is only one. Perspective can change from person to person but reality remains constant. Example: A person can die. One relative may view their passing as moving on to another realm. Another may simply see it as an end of a life. Either way, the person is simply dead.

I hope that my children will find work doing something they love, but I don't tell them that it is the more likely outcome. I brace them for the fact that work is work, the best you can hope for in life is finding your skills and talents and putting those to work to provide for your necessities.

This idea that simply doing what you want is enough is dangerous. It is just like when I hear someone tell a person who is interested in opening a business to do or sell what they are interested in. That is just about the worst advice you can give someone who is considering a business. Rule no.1 is there has to be a market. If I want to sell handmade pink bunny pencil toppers, without a market, I will lose a lot of money, time and be heartbroken with failure.

The advice shouldn't be do something that makes you happy. It should be do something useful.

reply to post by msfitte


What a depressing dream crushing response...but it's reality for many.

Yeah if money was no object we would have an amazingly efficient society.

Cancer and most medical problems would probably be cured by now.
Poverty would not exist.
People would eat healthy food.
Best medical care for everyone.
All medical research would only be limited by the minds that are in it.
Best education for everyone, at any age.
Technology research would be unlimited, it would be like Star Trek in like 20 years.
Free to go where you want, when you want.
Crime would drop super dramatically. Most crime is based on ideas of how to make money. Unless it is an emotional/passion crime E.G someone who has physically/mentally hurt you in the past present and they want revenge like murder.

And most importantly for NO MORE DEBT FOR ANYONE!!!




But this is unpractical, while people have money, money will always have power.

There needs to be a revolution.

In theory the "do what you love, and the money will follow" can work for many.....especially if you go to school in a field you enjoy........it happened for me...lol....however the more successful I became the less I enjoyed the work....funny how that worked?

I think the problem is that many jobs that NEED to be done, no one would do without the motivation of money....who wants to dig ditches or clean toliets.....but those jobs need to get done...and sadly, generally by people who didn't have the opportunity to go to school.

The world isn't a fair place, and doing what you love is a "luxury" ......sad but true.......

reply to post by Lightbringer38


Brilliant! How many of us can say that we have not compromised our dreams in order to live?

Not many I don't think. Tragically the world we live in promotes that we compromise almost everything.

S&F

reply to post by Wolf321


"Useful " for what? Continuing this cycle of monetary enslavement?


I guess the choice is this...

You can do what you want - be free - and be miserable since you do not conform to society...

OR

You can do what you don't want - be controlled - and still be miserable that you are not free...

Either way, you'll be miserable, but in only one of those can you choose to be FREE.

Wow! Glad to see this is taking off!

Originally posted by Wolf321
reply to post by nothingwrong

 

I understand the premise of doing what you love, it is just unrealistic. The world I describe is not my conception of it, it is reality. The nature of reality is there is only one. Perspective can change from person to person but reality remains constant. Example: A person can die. One relative may view their passing as moving on to another realm. Another may simply see it as an end of a life. Either way, the person is simply dead.

I hope that my children will find work doing something they love, but I don't tell them that it is the more likely outcome. I brace them for the fact that work is work, the best you can hope for in life is finding your skills and talents and putting those to work to provide for your necessities.

This idea that simply doing what you want is enough is dangerous. It is just like when I hear someone tell a person who is interested in opening a business to do or sell what they are interested in. That is just about the worst advice you can give someone who is considering a business. Rule no.1 is there has to be a market. If I want to sell handmade pink bunny pencil toppers, without a market, I will lose a lot of money, time and be heartbroken with failure.

The advice shouldn't be do something that makes you happy. It should be do something useful.

Well we will have to agree to disagree. For me the real danger is trying to confirm to a broken system. "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"

You can teach your children to be 'realistic' or you can teach them to be real. prepare them for a life of toil, being a wage slave for 2 weeks holiday a year somewhere in the sun, if they are lucky. Or teach them to follow theeir hopes and their dreams, concentrating on what they love, so that they can find fulfillment. How much money you have is not a measure of success. How much love you have is far more important.

I don't want to do anything. Absolutely nothing. Can I do that?? Pretty please??

reply to post by Lightbringer38


How inspiring Lightbringer38. For such a short clip, still appreciate and enjoyed it very much. It's hard to imagine a life without some currency exchange. I image there could possibly exist some form of non-market model equitable system of exchange. True utopia?

Originally posted by msfitte
reply to post by Lightbringer38

 

Not sure what reaction you're looking for. The "do what you love/what makes you happy" is nice in theory but in practice it just doesn't work that way.

It's no surprise to me that many of those the narrator questioned want to do things in the arts realm. Artistic things of all types feed the soul but when you've got kids to literally feed as well, the soul needs to take a backseat no matter how depressing it becomes

Wally Wannawrite may be just as talented and committed to crafting stories as Stephen King, but for whatever reason never got the buzz or big following to make it profitable. So he goes about his 40 or more hours a week doing whatever it takes for himself and his family to survive. And if he's lucky he has enough energy and brain power on his hours off to write for himself and maybe publish for those who know about and appreciate his work.

By saying the word "profitable" I can see you've missed the point of this entire video. Thanks OP ... great inspirational piece!

Originally posted by nothingwrong

Originally posted by Wolf321
reply to post by nothingwrong

 

I understand the premise of doing what you love, it is just unrealistic. The world I describe is not my conception of it, it is reality. The nature of reality is there is only one. Perspective can change from person to person but reality remains constant. Example: A person can die. One relative may view their passing as moving on to another realm. Another may simply see it as an end of a life. Either way, the person is simply dead.

I hope that my children will find work doing something they love, but I don't tell them that it is the more likely outcome. I brace them for the fact that work is work, the best you can hope for in life is finding your skills and talents and putting those to work to provide for your necessities.

This idea that simply doing what you want is enough is dangerous. It is just like when I hear someone tell a person who is interested in opening a business to do or sell what they are interested in. That is just about the worst advice you can give someone who is considering a business. Rule no.1 is there has to be a market. If I want to sell handmade pink bunny pencil toppers, without a market, I will lose a lot of money, time and be heartbroken with failure.

The advice shouldn't be do something that makes you happy. It should be do something useful.

Well we will have to agree to disagree. For me the real danger is trying to confirm to a broken system. "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"

You can teach your children to be 'realistic' or you can teach them to be real. prepare them for a life of toil, being a wage slave for 2 weeks holiday a year somewhere in the sun, if they are lucky. Or teach them to follow theeir hopes and their dreams, concentrating on what they love, so that they can find fulfillment. How much money you have is not a measure of success. How much love you have is far more important.

Oh Man, I am going along post by post and starring them as I go because I agree with both sides of this debate!! I really, really wish I personally was of the "do what you love" set. My heart and soul says that is how it should be, and that everything would all fall together.

On the other hand, I am currently paying for college for my son, and as soon as that obligation is finished, I need to save as much as I possily can for retirement, as I started saving very late due to several failed marriages that included a ton of debt. I count myself very lucky that I no longer have any credit card debt, but I still have a car payment and a mortgage.

I actually do love what I do, although it certainly isn't what I thought I would do when I first started college back in the eighties as a Theater major. However, I do not enjoy the extremely high stress my career currently puts on me, with 24 hour on-call duty every two weeks. I justify the stress with the fact that, outside of that on-call, my job is very interesting, and that I am back on track to be able to retire in another 13-15 years. That's if my body can take that kind of stress for 13-15 years. I have better odds than many! At least a possible retirement is on the table.

I look at my parents and their siblings' generation, and I get a bit upset on behalf of my own generation. My parents/aunts/uncles are now retired, and have benefits locked in, that my generation will not likely see. Meanwhile, at the same time we are paying for the Baby Boomers, we are also paying exhorbitant prices for our children's generation, Gen Z or whatever they are calling them, to attend college.

Meanwhile, our government is promising to suck away all the benefits my generation has thought we have been paying into during our entire working lives (for me, that is since I was 15 years old, currently 44), and we don't have much confidence in what we can expect. I honestly feel like we got our candles burned at both ends. When I talk to my peers, we feel like we are the generation that has paid for everybody.

I am hopeful that my kids will pick up and carry on. I am hopeful that they will be able to do it while also living their dreams. I have encouraged them to pursue their interests, and that seems to be happening, but the proof will be in the pudding, when they actually graduate and we see if they get paying jobs.

Vanity of vanities...all is vanity. Everything is chasing the wind...

Originally posted by Doodle19815
He says the same thing I have felt forever. For some reason we live for money. I just don't get it.

Good video,

I don't know that I've ever lived for money because I don't have any. I have done what I wanted and enjoyed, and it still hasn't always been easy or fun, but I don't know if I would change anything just so I could have a fat bank account.

I had a friend who died in a plane crash recently. You may have heard about it since he was an Olympian and it made national news. Pat Porter never did anything halfway. When I first met him he was just beginning flight lessons. In the 8 or 9 years after he flew every chance he got because he loved it. Tragic loss, especially since he had his son and son's friend with him, but my point is that he was one of those people who did exactly what he loved doing, and he ended up making a very good living.

Originally posted by definity
Yeah if money was no object we would have an amazingly efficient society.

Cancer and most medical problems would probably be cured by now.
Poverty would not exist.
People would eat healthy food.
Best medical care for everyone.
All medical research would only be limited by the minds that are in it.
Best education for everyone, at any age.
Technology research would be unlimited, it would be like Star Trek in like 20 years.
Free to go where you want, when you want.
Crime would drop super dramatically. Most crime is based on ideas of how to make money. Unless it is an emotional/passion crime E.G someone who has physically/mentally hurt you in the past present and they want revenge like murder.

And most importantly for NO MORE DEBT FOR ANYONE!!!




But this is unpractical, while people have money, money will always have power.

There needs to be a revolution.

edit on 25-9-2012 by definity because: (no reason given)

Maybe....somewhere in the future there will come a girl or a guy who will present the world a solid idea. An idea that will be so perfect that a country...or maybe it will start with a small community....will give it a go and show the world what the future can be.

Every year there are tons of students signing off from universities all over the world with a Phd or master degree in economics. I wonder if any of them had the balls to write a dissertation on the mechanics of a moneyless society. Or a society where money is not a dangerous trap to fall into.....whatever that means.

reply to post by Lightbringer38


Nothing amazing or insightful about this video. You have free will do what you desire. Most will sit on their butts and do nothing. That is why socialism and communism only work with extreem force and then fail when money and bullets are gone. Money, its a hit, don't give me that bs. New car, caviar, day dream, thinking about buying me a football team.