Life Lessons From a Billionaire

Feb. 21, 2020

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It’s cool to like sadness.

Relentlessly damaged and depressing characters win best actor Oscars.

The most popular bloggers in the world write viral posts on the awful-ness of fame.

The best comedians remind us how wrong it is to laugh when the world is flawed.

Being sad instead of happy shows enlightened awareness, and we like that.

We used to love the Bad Boy.

Now we love the Sad Boy.

On the other hand, why do we love Jack Reacher novels?

[We’re not talking about the movies. With all due respect, Jack Reacher is 6’5″ and weighs 250 pounds. Tom Cruise is not that. For this post, Jack Reacher movies do not exist.]

Lee Childs has sold 100 million Jack Reacher novels. Clearly, those books are liked.

Why do they like them? Because of Reacher.

And what’s unique about him?

He never loses a fight.

Or gets sad.

Or gets conflicted.

He is perfect and happy all the time in every novel.

He’s the opposite of the Sad Boy.

So maybe we shouldn’t aspire to be flawed or weak or have doubts.

Maybe we don’t have to have any of those things.

Maybe 1981 billionaire playboy Arthur taught us everything we need to know.

In that movie, there’s a scene where Arthur has just fallen in love and is buying everything in a flower shop to celebrate.

After a friendly back and forth with the shopkeeper, Arthur happily turns to leave.

Before he goes, the shopkeeper asks him what all of us would want to ask a rich person.

He asks Arthur, “How does it feel to have all that money?”

Does Arthur shake his head and say, “Hey, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be” or “Money isn’t everything.”

No, he says something else.

Arthur says, “It feels great.”

Because it would feel awesome — if we let it.

We don’t have to always look for, and emphasize, the bad.

There’s no nobility in seeking sadness.

It’s okay to seek and enjoy happiness.

It’s okay to feel great.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.