Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Monday night my mother and brother were watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?". For some reason I sat down and watched it too. I really peeeeeved my mother off by getting all the questions correct! (Yes, all of them, for the entire show!) This resulted in me being yelled at. The first reason being that she thinks I should go on the show! The other reason, was my mother is sick and tired of me knowing so much, yet my life seems such a complete waste to her (and many others agree with her!) Constantly being asked, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?", is one of the questions I keep getting asked. It's funny that people equate MONEY with INTELLIGENCE. If you ask any person on the planet what is important, you will find most will place HAPPINESS, LOVE, FRIENDS, FAMILY, HEALTH and many other things above MONEY. Why is it that they don't like the fact that I am happy and content with my life? Sure, I am not rich. I would like money so that I am financially free and independent. After all, if there is one thing money does give people, it's freedom to do a lot of things they otherwise could not do. The only problem, is it won't guarantee happiness. :-) Now, as Billy Connolly would say, "Rich and Miserable beats Poor and Miserbale any day." I agree, it does. But what about Poor and Happy verses Rich and Miserable. After all, what is the point of being Rich if you are Miserable. Isn't it better to get ones life in order so that one can be happy. Then, when one truly has goals set, they can work on becoming HAPPY and RICH. Of course, if you find yourself in the RICH and MISERABLE position, my suggestion would be for you to start working towards goals which will make you happy, while trying to conserve your fortune. I've already trashed my health trying to make it rich by doing it the way we are taught to do it in school. Work hard, and in theory you will get rich. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. It never did. Working hard only makes other people rich. The ones you are working for. It makes them look good, because they get more work for their dollar. In theory, they are supposed to notice this and reward you. This doesn't always happen. When I worked for a certain company! (Let's call them company B) I replaced four people, and was constantly being congratulated on saving the company. Yet, when it came time for pay rises, I didn't received one in three years! With the rise in the cost of living, I was actually LOSING money working for that company, even though they noticed my good work. At another company (let's call them Company A), I merged three jobs together and automated a lot of the work. Instead of seeing how cleaver I was, and how I saved money for the company, they considered my automating of work to be laziness on my part. What they then did, was employed someone else to oversee me, and pulled my automation apart. They were now paying two people to do the work, and we were then needing to do overtime to get the work done! They also had problems handing out money for good work (probably because they didn't recognise it!) No wonder I left the poorly managed companies and started working for myself. I earn a lot less, but at the end of the day, the potential to earn more while being happy is greater. After all, every good idea I get which helps make money will mean the money goes INTO MY POCKETS, not into someone elses pockets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On another subject. Here is a philosophy I've carried with me most of my life. "There is always more than one way to the square." (A lot less messy than the "more than one way to skin a cat"). I actually got this from a Readers Digest story when I was 7 years old. It was about a fashion designer who used to get some remarkable results (though I can't remember her name). She talked about how her father took her to the top of the City Bell Tower (or was it clock tower) and showed her the sites of their City. As he explained to her, all the roads lead to the square in the centre, and almost everyoen was trying to get to the square. What he explained was, everyone is taking their own path to the square. None of these pathes are wrong, as they all lead to the same place. If you find one way blocked, you just take the other road. I think a lot of people miss this (especially managers). Whenever a manager wants you to do things their way (and only their way) they'll often accuse you of being "unable to think outside the square". This is in spite of the fact that it is usually the oposite way around. They can't imagine doing things differently, so they try to foce you into conforming with "their way". Guess it's time for me to get back to becoming a Millionaire in my own way! :-)