Apparently, it made him miserable, so he decided to give it all away. He’s selling his properties and will live in a hut in the mountains.
“For a long time I believed that more wealth and luxury automatically meant more happiness,” he said. “I come from a very poor family where the rules were to work more to achieve more material things, and I applied this for many years,” said Mr Rabeder.
But over time, he had another, conflicting feeling.
“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now all this luxury and consumerism and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.
I have the feeling that there are lot of people doing the same thing.”
However, for many years he said he was simply not “brave” enough to give up all the trappings of his comfortable existence.
The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii.
“It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is,” he said. “In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”
He had similar feelings of guilt while on gliding trips in South America and Africa. “I increasingly got the sensation that there is a connection between our wealth and their poverty,” he said.
I would submit to you folks, that while it’s admirable that he has chosen to give his wealth away to those who are needy, he was soulless to begin with, and it had nothing to do with his earnings. He exhibits all the signs of someone who never understood the meaning of what he earned or respected its true value. Money will not give you a soul. It will not provide you with happiness. It is merely a means to an end – a tool of exchange – an inanimate object that cannot be created unless there are people willing to work to make it so. Note I said “created.” Think about what that means.
Money can’t make you miserable any more than it can make you happy.
Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shrugged:
Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he’s evaded the knowledge of what to value,and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he’s evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent.
[...]
Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue,but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit.Is this the root of your hatred of money?
This is a man who sounds like he was empty in the first place – who never learned to respect the root of the money he earned, who has never learned to admire what it means to create wealth, instead of simply obtaining it.
In my opinion, that is one of the biggest problems with the politicians of this world. They never learned that money should be paid to those who earned it, not to those who obtain it by force, and wonder why it didn’t work to give them what they wanted. They never learned that the tax dollars they spend do not belong to them, and should be paid to them for a particular service, not as an entitlement. They never learned that money doesn’t give them true power, because they’re impotent worms to begin with, but they continue to extort more and more money in hopes that some day it’ll be enough. These are the same miserable leeches who obtain others’ money by force, redistribute it to others who haven’t earned (including themselves), and then condemn those of us who have earned it and who respect its root and nature as greedy.
Emptiness begets emptiness. Until this millionaire understands the nature of his wealth, he will not be happy – neither in a chateau nor in a hut.
Feb 09, 2010 @ 20:33:58
I suspect you may be being a bit too harsh. This man probably was happier when what he earned gave him self-respect and lost that self-respect when he no longer provided for himself through his own efforts.I do agree that his focus is wrong-headed. It wasn’t the money that made him miserable, but the lack of feeling like a full human doing something worthwhile. He could have kept the money and used it as a springboard to do great things that could have brought him satisfaction. However, he wrongly attributed to money powers it does not have. He may be philosophically stunted, but I would not think he has not soul. He just hasn’t recognized it yet, however he seems to be searching for it. I hope he finds it.
Feb 10, 2010 @ 18:53:39
This guy could have built something meaningful with the money. I read these stories frequently, about lottery winners and so on, who are shocked that money alone doesn’t buy happiness.He could have picked a value and started an advocacy group to promote it. Started his own company and, among other things provided employment to people – itself probably a more substantial thing than just charity. He could have run for office.Personally, I would have used it for one of my pet causes, which is anti-censorship. I would have basically started suing the hell out of people, organizations, and institutions that try to dictate what one can and cannot read.I wouldn’t have had this problem. I share this with him: I wouldn’t have lived a jet-setter lifestyle. Bought a few things I want (like a Sig!), sure. Visited Europe. But this would not be my life.My life would be dedicated to what I really want to do, which is to be a painful, festering thorn in the side of authority. I’m sure with some cash I could make that happen in a way which could only be described as poetry.Anyway, new to your blog, like the unrestrained style of it. Keep writing.