My ideology regarding money has changed drastically over the years. The way I see it, I can divide it into five discreet stages:

1. “Money Is the Root of All Evil. I Despise Money.”

Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you. — Naval Ravikant

Many people, especially the middle class, hate money — and, by extension, hate rich people. I did, too. I thought that I hated money because I believed that money — wanting or chasing it and having it — made people evil.

But that wasn’t true. I didn’t hate money because I thought it was evil. Something else was going on. Deep down, I was afraid of accepting that I wanted to be rich because I wasn’t confident in my ability to be rich. And I was using ‘hatred for money because it’s evil’ as a defense mechanism to prevent myself from facing the reality that I may not be capable enough.

But then, a couple of new perspectives took away the power of my defense mechanism.

• “Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible.” — Naval Ravikant.
• “Money doesn’t change you. It exposes you.” — Garyvee

These perspectives helped me realize that money isn’t inherently evil. Only that money exposes the good and the bad of the people. I realized that if you’re a good person within, ethical wealth creation is possible.

These perspectives hit me in the face. And that’s when I stopped hating money.

2. “I Want To Be Extremely Rich!”

Once my defense mechanism of hating money was no longer present, I realized that I was, in fact, attracted to the rich lifestyle. And hence, I decided that I wanted to be rich!

But to do that, I had to face my fears. I had to accept that I was fearful of wanting to be rich because I didn’t yet have that much confidence in myself.

“What if I’m not good enough to be rich?”

Hence, I decided to get rid of my fears. It was a slow process. And an uncomfortable one. But since then, I’ve been focused on working hard and accumulating crucial skills.

And while the fear hasn’t completely gone away, years of work on myself has taught me how to tame my fears such that it doesn’t limit me in life.

3. “I Don’t Need To Be Uber-Rich! What a Relief!”

Writing online was a game-changer for me. I started with the aim of making a hundred dollars every month. But I surprised myself and ended up doing much, much better than that.

Pretty soon, I was making significantly more than my expenses. So, while I wasn’t filthy rich in an absolute sense, I felt pretty rich. And I acted like it. I bought tons of stuff. I upgraded my lifestyle. I got a tiny glimpse of the rich lifestyle — the one I was attracted to.

And I believed that it would make me happier.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t.

I soon realized that things don’t make you happy. And that confused me. If having money and living a comfortable life where you can have the things you want doesn’t make you happy, what will?

Upon lots of introspection, I realized that the only thing that truly made me happy — outside of good health and relationships — was a lifetime of learning. I realized that I want to grow even more as a writer. And learn more and more new skills so that I can extract tons of joy out of my one life.

Then I realized that in the age of the internet — learning is essentially free! Of course, I can and might have to invest in courses and coaches — but that’s still going to be much cheaper than a Ferrari.

The attraction that I felt for a rich lifestyle? Gone.

I concluded that while I need to make a decent amount of money — which I’m confident that I will — I don’t need to be filthy rich because I no longer have a desire for a rich lifestyle! What a relief!

4. “I Want To Be an Unintentional Billionaire — Like JK Rowling”

After learning and philosophizing about money over the years, I feel like I’ve finally developed a holistic philosophy that I can use to guide my life.

My goal in life right now, is to be a billionaire without directly chasing money.

A good example would be JK Rowling — the writer of the Harry Potter series. If you think about it, JK Rowling didn’t ever set out to be super-rich, let alone be a billionaire. It was never her intention. If it were, she would have chosen some other path like investment banking— which has greater odds of making a person rich than being a writer. The stereotype is that most writers struggle to make a living — it was even more true then than it is today.

It’s just that her books — even though they were rejected twelve times — were so freaking good — that she ended up becoming a billionaire. She probably never wanted to be a billionaire, but she deserved to be one.

I want something like that for myself.

As I mentioned before, there came a point in my life when I realized that I didn’t want to or need to make loads of money. A decent, financially comfortable life plus a lifetime of learning would have sufficed for me.

But now, I understand that being rich is not just about having money. It’s also a statement as to how much value you bring to the world — and, hence, how much the world values you. All these professional athletes who do extraordinary things for their country — inevitably become rich. That’s because they bring so much value.

I want that as well.

• I don’t want to chase money. I want to chase my curiosity, my calling. And I want money to ensue.
• And how much I feel must ensue? Billions. Not because I need billions. Not because I want that tag of a billionaire. But because I just want to be that good at what I do.

5. I Don’t Want To Chase Money Directly. I Want To Chase My Curiosity. And I Want Money To Ensue

How you make your money is more important than how much you make.

— Garyvee

Chasing money directly has a few problems.

• It might cause you to sacrifice your curiosity or passion. For instance, a person who wants to be rich might choose a career in finance rather than become a writer — which is what they truly want to be. And this can cause someone to live a rich yet boring & dull life — because they’re not spending time doing what they love.
• It might cause someone to sacrifice their values. For example, one of my values is health. And hence, I’m never ever going to open a fast-food restaurant or a bar to make money. But if I’m too focused on money, I might be inclined to sacrifice my values.
• It might even cause some people to do illegal shit. In Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel tells the story of Rajat Gupta. Rajat came from a modest background and made it to $100 million in net worth. $100 million! Can you imagine? Yet, he was jealous of Warren Buffet for being a billionaire — and hence, he turned to illegal means. Soon, he was convicted of insider trading and served a prison sentence.

Of course, these don’t happen always. But you have to agree that chasing insane amounts of money directly will knock you off the path in life you’re actually supposed to take.

When you’re too fixated on “how much” you make, you may compromise on “how” you make your money, causing you to do something like the above-mentioned examples.

That’s why, in an ideal world, I wouldn’t want to chase money directly at all. I would prefer chasing my curiosity — and my calling. At this point, those seem to be writing and eventually becoming a neuroscientist.

But, of course, I’m not naive. I understand that you have to directly chase money when you don’t have it. Research shows that emotional well-being directly correlates to how much money you make up to a point: ~$75-100,000 annually in the USA.

And hence, I think a more practical framework — that I’m trying to follow — looks something like this.

• Pay your bills with the day job.
• Understand the principles of wealth creation. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a great read for this.
• On the side, start building and monetizing your curiosity using the principles so that you’re someday able to transition.
• Build a few income streams so that you’re in a better position to take calculated risks.
• Chase money directly only until you have enough money — whatever enough may be for you.
• And then, transition and start going all-in on your curiosity. Let curiosity displace money as the center of your life once you cross the threshold. Do what you love — and let money ensue.

The last step is important.

Money is addictive. Once you start making money, it’s easy to get hooked and never stop thinking about money. You’ll be oblivious to the fact that you ended up ditching your curiosities. I don’t want to do that.

Get Better at Your Curiosity so That You End Up Making Billions out of It — Unintentionally

As I mentioned before, money is not just a tool. It’s a measure of how much the world values you — and how much value you bring to the world.

That’s why, while I don’t actually want the money, I do want to bring tons of value to the world. Money is a proxy indicator of that. As a crude example to that effect, the articles I write that bring more value to the reader — end up making more money.

Just to clarify, the goal is not to make a billion dollars. The goal is to become so good at your craft that you become someone who deserves a billion dollars. And I know that making a billion dollars for all practical purposes — is impossible for most of us.

But that is the point! If you aim small and then achieve that goal — you could stop improving. But because making a billion dollars is essentially impossible, it can anchor you to the process of improving for life because you’re unlikely to ever hit your goal.

To that end, the topic of this article may have been money. But when you think about it, it’s not actually about money. It’s about continuously improving at what you love to do — so that you get to become your best self.

To conclude, money and passion — both of them are highly essential areas of a good life. Don’t be frivolous about how they relate to each other. Pour more intention into your life, and design a life where they’re aligned with each other, not against.