Money

“You were broke when I paid you $5 per hour. You are broke now that I pay you $20 per hour. Even if I paid you $100 per hour, it reasons to stand that you will still be broke.” That was a conversation that I had with one of my former employees about seven years ago. She didn’t seem happier now that she had more money. If I just get that other job and make more money, then we will be happier. Sound familiar? It does to me. I always thought that if my bars/restaurants would make more money, then I could be happier. Again, I think I had some degrees of happiness when I made more money, but it seems that those feelings wore off quickly. I have a great friend who says he was happier with his wife during college in their one-room apartment and beat up car. He makes a lot of money today. He is on his own journey to happiness and has realized that more money is a fool’s path. More money is not bad. It just doesn’t bring me to more happiness. And that is what I have been trying to figure out with this happiness gig. If money doesn’t bring me more happiness and I am saying that I want more happiness then why am I always trying to get more? Should I be happy with what I have? Should I not try and make more? I don’t know. It seems that money is different to each individual I talk to. The documentary Happy on Netflix had a great point. $5,000 to a homeless person would probably bring more happiness to that person’s life. They would be able to obtain shelter and food with that much money. But beyond the basic survival items, more money doesn’t necessarily bring more happiness. This journey I have blogged about is about more happiness, not more money. Sometimes I wonder if I get that screwed up in my head. It seems that if I were interested in more happiness then I wouldn’t necessarily always be in pursuit of more money. What do you think?