The Ultimate Goal for Money, What you MUST really know : Giving Back
For me, money was always out of reach as a child. It was always a source of stress because there was never enough of it. I remember having to knock on the neighbor’s door to ask for food for my brother and sister and me. Then, on Thanksgiving Day when I was 11 years old, something happened that changed my life forever. As usual, there was no food in the house, and my parents were fighting. Then I heard someone knocking at the front door. I opened it a crack and saw a man standing on the steps with grocery bags filled with enough food for a big Thanksgiving dinner. I could hardly believe it. My father always said that nobody gave a damn about anybody. But all of a sudden someone I didn’t know, who wasn’t asking for anything in return, was looking out for us. It made me think, “Does this mean that strangers care?” And I decided that if strangers care about me and my family, I care about them! “What am I going to do?” I promised myself that day, I was going to find a way, somehow, someday, to give back and pay it forward. So, when I was 17, I saved my money from working nights as a janitor and went out on Thanksgiving and fed two families. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.
It lifted my spirit to see faces turned from despair to joy. Truly, it was as much a gift to me as it was to them. I didn’t tell anybody what I was doing, but the next year, I fed four families. Then eight. I wasn’t doing it for Brownie points, but after eight, I thought, “Man, I could use some help.” So I enlisted some friends, and they got into it too. It grew and grew. Now my foundation feeds 2 million people every year in 36 countries, through our International Basket Brigades. Would I have known the joy of giving if it wasn’t for that terrible Thanksgiving when I was 11? Who knows? Some would call it luck or fate or plain old good fortune. I see the hand of God in it; I call it grace. Here’s what I know: I learned the joy of giving, and it had nothing to do with money. Money is simply a vehicle for trying to meet our needs, and not just our financial needs. Much of our life is guided by the beliefs we develop over the course of time; the story we create about what life’s about, how we’re supposed to be, what we’re supposed to do or give. Ultimately, what’s going to make us happy or fulfilled. Everyone has a different “happy.” Some people find happiness pleasing others, while others find happiness in power and domination. Others define their happy as a billion dollars. Some think the way to happiness and a meaningful life is to get closer to God and give up everything material. Still others think the ultimate idea of happiness is freedom. Whatever emotion you’re after, whatever vehicle you pursue—building a business, getting married, raising a family, traveling the world— whatever you think your nirvana is, I have found it’s only an attempt by your brain to meet one or more of six human needs. These six basic needs make us tick. They drive all human behavior and are universal. They are the force behind the crazy things (other) people do and the great things we do. We all have the same six needs, but how we value those needs, and in what order, determines the direction of our life. Why are the six human needs so important to understand? Well, if you’re going to build wealth, you’ve got to know what you’re really after—what you’re building it for. Are you looking for wealth to feel certain and secure? Are you chasing wealth to feel special and unique? Or are you looking to have a sense of contribution—you want to do things for others in a way you’ve never been able to do before? Or maybe all of the above? If you value certainty as the most important need in your life, you’re going to move in a very different direction, act differently in relationships, in business and finance, than if love is your number one need. If we get underneath what you’re really after, it’s not money at all. What you’re really after is what you think money is going to give you. Ultimately, it’s a set of feelings. And beneath those feelings are needs.
Source: Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins
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