What is more elusive or more compelling? More personal or more a part of society? More on everyone's lips or more difficult to talk about? More linked with success or more separate from it?
Money takes some understanding. To help us come to terms with it, Fast Company turned to Jacob Needleman, philosopher, author, and lecturer. His book, "Money and the Meaning of Life" (Currency/Doubleday, 1991), captured the wisdom of his 30 years of teaching at San Francisco State University; his experiences in seminars with the wealthy, successful members of the Young Presidents' Organization; and his encounters with high-achieving businesspeople around the world.
As a "worldly philosopher," Needleman has made a career out of talking honestly about a subject that eludes most people and listening thoughtfully to people talk about a subject that most find hard to discuss. In fact, says Needleman, "Money today has become like sex was to previous generations. It's damn hard, in fact nearly impossible, to think about money honestly. It has an immense influence on everything we do. Yet few people are able to acknowledge the power of money."
Because of his insights on money and meaning, Jacob Needleman has become a popular consultant to businesses and philanthropic organizations; he also appeared as a memorable subject in Bill Moyers's PBS series "A World of Ideas." Fast Company interviewed Needleman in his Spanish-revival home in the elegant St. Francis Woods section of San Francisco. He was, as always, opinionated, self-effacing, bawdy, and brilliant -- a down-to-earth intellectual who shares many traits of the successful businesspeople who have sought his advice.
How does money change people?
Having lots of money can be like a drug. It can make you feel powerful and giddy. It can convince you that everything's going to be okay. Years ago they asked the great fighter Joe Louis what he thought about money, and he said, "I don't like money very much, but it calms my nerves." Money makes us unjustifiably feel that we're better and more important than we really are. When money can make you feel humble, then I think it's really useful. But if it fattens your ego, which it often does, then look out.
That way lies madness. That's what all the Greek tragedies are about -- hubris -- and that's part of the problem with money. It is greatness, it is power, it is beauty. Money is about love and relationships. It has a wonderful power to bring people together as well as tear them apart. You can't escape money. If you run from it, it will chase you and catch you. Even Thoreau today would need a real estate agent to help him buy the cabin at Walden Pond.
If we don't understand our relationship to money in this culture, then I think we're doomed. If you don't know how you are toward money and really understand that relationship, you simply don't know yourself. Period.
From your experiences with people who've made a lot of money, is there something different about the way people get rich today?
The incredible pace of change triggered by modern technology has affected how people acquire wealth. There's no precedent in human experience for the speed, scale, or age at which people today can get incredibly wealthy. When everything is quick and fast and easy, a certain part of ourselves is fed while another part withers away. Worse, we don't even know it.
In the past, wealth tended to be something you built up over a long time, or inherited from your family. Today people are getting wealthy quickly in what used to be a long, hard-earned process.
Let's see if we can make it more specific. Say that I'm a 25-year-old working in a company that just went public, and my options are now worth $10 million. What should I do? How do I keep this money from overwhelming me?
You need to find someone you can talk to. You need to see if there is any wisdom out there beyond the calculus of just getting and spending. Maybe you have a priest, a parent, a professor, or a friend. Maybe there are a couple of other people in your same situation who are also asking, "How are we supposed to navigate this life that suddenly is so weird?"
You need to realize that you are only 25 years old and that you aren't wise enough to know what to do with this $10 million. Think about it: $10 million! Suddenly you can have anything you want. And just as suddenly it is going to be obvious to you that getting everything you want is not going to do anything for you. Pretty soon you are going to feel just as empty with $10 million as you did before.
Doesn't having that much money mean you no longer have to worry about the basic necessities of life? Doesn't that free you?
No. If you are worrying about vegetables now, you'll be worrying about yachts then. You're a worrier. It's in you, not the money. Life, except for the obvious physical needs, is not so much defined by the external situation as by the inner one.
Having money won't change your internal makeup. If you're an anxious sonofabitch without money, you're going to be an anxious sonofabitch with a lot of money.
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