The core purpose of wealth is freedom, and it comes in five forms: freedom from money problems, to try and fail, to explore, to pursue passions and from the voice of society. Three things get blurred together: wealth, money and your position in the social hierarchy. Of the three, it says wealth is the one to go after.
Money is what you earn in exchange for your time and work. Wealth is the fortune that grows outside your direct input, the kind that keeps growing even if you take a sick day. Here are the five freedoms it makes possible.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 5 freedoms at a glance
- Freedom from money problems (0:56)
- Freedom to try and fail (3:08)
- Freedom to explore (5:30)
- Freedom to pursue passions (7:00)
- Freedom from self and society (7:51)
1. Freedom from money problems
The debate over whether money can make you happy continues, but the video says one thing is certain: lack of money makes you unhappy. Much of our unhappiness comes from being unable to get through life comfortably and unstressed. Even a high earner can have money problems.
Most people work several jobs for 40 to 50 years and hope what they gathered lasts until the end. Many struggle to the last day and pass debt to their children. Wealth fixes that if you do not mess it up. A house you live in is not wealth because it forces you to trade time to pay the mortgage and utilities. Rent it out and it turns from a liability into an asset, and wealth is made of value-generating assets.
Every generation has its version of the wealth-building tool. Long ago the cow was the go-to asset, since it gave milk that could be drunk or sold. The basic money problems are food and shelter, and a person becomes free once income from wealth crosses that threshold, and then wider, so that it covers the family and makes tomorrow predictable. Nobody can work on their mental state while their children have nothing to eat.
2. Freedom to try and fail
Wealth is measured by how many times you can afford to fail and still be fine. It combines timing, money and mental fortitude. At 23 with no family and low expenses, you can start and fail several times. At 40 with two children relying on your salary, quitting for five unpaid years is probably out of reach.
This is the advantage of being born into a wealthy family. Everybody dislikes the privileged kids who did nothing to earn it, yet we are all hypocrites, because we want our own children to have the best tools. Wealth gives anyone that privilege. Build a company first and you can spend the next decade on painting or filmmaking, fine even if it fails.
A line credited, probably, to Nassim Taleb runs: if you want to be a philosopher king, first become a king and then a philosopher, not the other way around.
3. Freedom to explore
People are multi-variant, yet society makes us choose what to be from early childhood. Think of every adult asking what you want to be when you grow up, many of them living lives they did not pick.
Most people do not know who they are because they cannot afford to find out. To find your thing you must try many things, and interests change over time as you grow. One of wealth’s main purposes is the luxury to understand yourself and the world you are shaping. Something may fascinate you for the next decade that you have not met yet, and most of us can feel it is out there.
4. Freedom to pursue passions
This freedom is not about monetary gain. You do not fish, play video games, build ships in bottles or spend time with a pet for profit. You do it because it feels good.
Passions require money, and making money requires time. This is, it says, the underlying purpose of wealth: creating time for what you want to do rather than what you have to do. True wealth is choosing where your time goes. Passions are not needed for survival, but they are needed for a life well lived, which is why many people fall short.
5. Freedom from self and society
There is a voice in your head that pushes you in one direction. It sounds like you, but the words belong to everyone you have met: take a safe job, settle down, fit in. Society makes people fit by pressing them into the empty hole nearest to them, which is why many lives are wrapped around the immediate environment. You met your partner within 30 minutes of home, found a job in the same area and own a suboptimal apartment there because it is convenient.
There is a true self you would become if every door were open, and another identity dictated by what you think society wants. Wealth puts distance between your reality and that voice. It lets you stop impressing people or pretending for status, be happy with who you are and change if you want to. We are not puzzle pieces filling someone else’s picture. We are more like colors on a canvas, and the purpose of wealth is to let you be the painter without needing anyone’s approval.
Wealth has other purposes too
Freedom is only the first purpose the series covers. The video says wealth also brings security, which it takes up in the next part.
FAQ
What is the purpose of wealth?
According to the video, the fundamental reason people want wealth is freedom, which takes five forms: from money problems, to try and fail, to explore, to pursue passions and from self and society.
What is the difference between money and wealth?
Money is what you earn in exchange for your time and work. Wealth is a fortune that grows outside your direct input, so it keeps growing even when you take a sick day.
Why is a house you live in not wealth?
Because it requires you to trade time to pay the mortgage and utilities. Rent it to someone else and it becomes an income-producing asset.
How is wealth measured in the video?
By how many times you can afford to fail and still be fine, a mix of timing, money and mental fortitude.
Why is wealth tied to passions?
Passions require money and money requires time. Wealth buys time for the things you want to do instead of the things you have to do.
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