Does Money Buy Happiness? - SCIFI MULTIVERSE PROMPT WEEK 76 EDITION 2
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The question that was asked is if money can actually buy happiness. A few years ago, if you asked me this kind of question, I would say yes, because we all thought that money can actually buy everything. It was the belief.
It was so profound that every movie in Nigeria at one point in time was tending towards making money, going to the big city to go and make money. Immediately you make money, you start becoming a big guy. And when you travel out to the United States, from Nigeria to the United States, then you come back with a British or American accent, you take a car and you start oppressing everyone.
Immediately you have money, you have everything. So yes, that was what we thought before. That was what I think before.
It's not because I believe that money could replace the type of love, faith, family, and purpose in life, but because the experience and what we're exposed to, that was what brought us to that scenario to believe that. But as life goes on, as humans start to progress, as I also comes to understand something, being a web designer and automation engineer, and I've worked countless nights on the laptop to make ends meet and to make some money. I've come to find out that money is not even the small accomplishment that makes up happiness.
While others saw someone passionate about technology, I often saw someone that is chasing opportunity that seems just out of reach. There were days when I had skills, but not enough clients, so I wasn't happy.
And there were days when I make the most amount of money that I could make in a month, and still happiness is far away because I still have to hustle and work for the next month, or I still have to beat myself to it.
So I would take my scenario from times when I had the money. I mean, the Upwork project was converting, the LinkedIn cold email was coming in, and clients were coming. Returning clients were also returning, and they were dropping projects in hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, and all that.
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During those times, I was not the happiest man in the world. Yes, I felt fulfilled. Yes, a path of relief came because I could afford the busy things, but the fear of what is going to happen tomorrow, what comes next month, what if this person didn't come, what happened if this project cancelled, this and that, and many more.
I've shown that having money does not solve all life's problems, and if you use that equation, that means that money is not equals to happiness. There are days when I invested hours learning artificial intelligence, APIs, and automation, instead of earning immediate income because I believed those skills would eventually change my life. In all those moments, it was easy to assume that money was the thing that I need.
After all, you can use money to pay rent, buy better equipment and gadgets. We are talking of Alienware's laptop and the like. It comes in thousands of dollars, or invest in stock, bonds, crypto.
If I have a very high amount of money, I can buy myself 6,000 hives and take it into SBI. Thereby, I can come through Steem Basic Income and get a consistent daily upvote. Money actually makes life better to live, so that is something we all should know.
So it is very good to have money, and when you have money, everybody is your friend. You can even make friends with it. You can reach the top in life if you have money.
Though power is bigger than money, but money can buy you power to a very good extent. Money creates options, and options reduce stress. So yes, when we say that money solves problems, it is true.
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But over time, I started asking different questions that questions the equation of money being equals to happiness.
What happens after money comes?
I've seen a lot of freelancers, including me myself, that are earning, but it's not just coming together as a whole. It has made me realize something.
Money can improve your way of life, your quality life, and give you basic healthcare, a very better way to live, but it cannot improve the quality of your heart. As someone that is fascinated by design, web design, digital skills, lots like that, even in the future, which is quantum computing, I spent a lot of time thinking that where is the world even going, and how can I make the best use of it? AI will make people where they are. Automation will eliminate some repetitive tasks, that one is sure, and businesses are going to become more efficient than ever.
How do I make the best use of this opportunity? But none of this innovation can replace the genuine connection of humans. No AI model can love you just like a family does, or like your mother. No automation workflow can build your character.
It belongs to humans. There is no amount of money too that can buy peace of mind if you constantly compare yourself with everyone else. There is no amount of money that can replace low self-esteem if you have that past trauma that has made you belittle yourself.
Even if you have the highest amount of money, you are a trillionaire tomorrow, you will still make a wrong use of that money, because you are not happy enough to think right in the right direction that will help you to do something right with that money.
So money is not the same thing as happiness, because when you are happy, it makes your heart and your mind glad, and you can be able to think properly. I've also learned that happiness is not a destination that is waiting behind a certain bank balance.
If you are happy, you are happy.
There are people that are happy with nothing in their bank account, and there are people that have all the millions, and they still don't have any tangible thing to show for it. If you are unhappy earning $1,000, you probably discover new reasons to be unhappy earning $10,000.
Human beings have developed capacity to naturally adjust to new levels of comfort. What once felt like having success becomes normal, then we start to chase after another one immediately. I've experienced that cycle before, so that is why I'm penning this down.
I remember dreaming about landing international clients everywhere, especially from the United States, and getting a very long list amount of clients to work with so that I can have a lot of portfolio. What I think about these days is how I can contribute to my quarter to the future of AI, artificial intelligence, automations and the like. The goals keep evolving, and that's okay.
Ambition is not the problem here. The problem is believing that happiness begins after the next achievement. No, it is not.
For me, real happiness comes from building something that is meaningful, tangible, and can stand the test of time. It's also duplicatable, let me put it that way, and you can impact it into others. That is happiness.
If solving a client's problem with a well-designed WordPress website and watching automation video can save someone hours of manual work, I am happy with that. And at that point in time, the client has not even paid me. That is another proof that money is not equal to happiness in any way.
Sometimes when clients are having issues and they just come to my DM and say, oh, I am having this kind of issue and can you help me out, and I just log in and fix it and everything is working perfectly well and you are making a very large amount of money, I become happy. At that point in time, some of those clients have not even paid. They just want somebody to help them edit their website in an urgent way because it can make or break things.
Ironically, I found out that the moment that stays with me aren't always the ones attached to the biggest invoice. There are moments when a client says you've transformed my business. When I master a difficult concept after a week of study or when I realize that I'm becoming the kind of person that I pray to become, I become very happy at that.
So does money buy happiness?
That's the question we've been asking each other. Money buys comfort, opportunity, freedom, and it can remove a lot of life's pressure off your neck. But happiness comes from purpose, from growth, from faith, from meaningful relationship.
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When you wake up every day and you know that you can build something that matters, that is happiness. I'll continue to chase after financial success because that is the stage I am but perfect happiness comes from fulfilling purpose, growing, and having faith in the right direction. If I ever become wealthy, which I'm sure I'm going to become one day, and lose my peace, faith, integrity, all the people I have longed love all along the way, then I haven't really succeeded.
Thereby, there won't be any happiness because at the end of the day, money is an incredible tool but it's not a good definition of happiness.
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