How to make a difference whilst making your fortune

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How to make a difference whilst making your fortune

Submitted by Matthew Needham on 24 Comments

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photo credit: Mikael Miettinen

From time to time on a Friday we feature guest posts from cool people who are changing the world one step at a time. This is a guest post by Ben Lumley author of 6aliens.com – a geeks guide to self development. Follow Ben on Twitter, book mark his site and subscribe to his RSS. Go visit – he has some cool stuff on there. Although, not before you’ve read the rest of this post! As it’s Friday, Ben is today’s Twitter Friday Follow #ff

Over to you Ben:

Success is what drives all of us. Whether it’s relationship success, skill success, or financial success; all of us desire to achieve something amazing in our lives. Some people will disagree and say that you should remove desire from your life and as a Buddhist I would agree to a certain degree; but most of us strive to achieve something before they slip off this mortal coil.

For a lot of people that’s making a fortune. The pull of that nice house and that sports car whilst running a company of empirical proportions is strong. We work tirelessly throughout our lives trying to amass our fortune, which will allow us to go and purchase the luxuries we’ve been craving for so long.

Sadly though, many of us get too caught up in making a fortune so we forget about what’s actually important and what matters. You’ve seen these kind of people in the movies; the bitter and twisted old billionaire who has no family or friends and all they ever see is money. Turns out most of us don’t want to turn out like that. We want the fortune but still want to be grounded at the same time. The best way to do this is to make sure you’re always trying to make a difference as the money rolls in.

So how can you ensure that whilst you’re making your fortune you’re also making a difference?

Family First

You family should ALWAYS be your first priority. I know without my family that any success I have is always fruitless. I could have a few coins in my pocket but still have them and I’d still be on top of the world. What we have isn’t determined by money.

You may be working for 18hrs a day to make sure you can provide for your family and that’s fine but while you have your head down in your work , you don’t realise they’ve up and gone. You’d feel pretty low and you know it.

Be Grateful

Where have you come from? What do you have now? Which people have helped you out along the way?

These things are what have made you what you are today and you should always be grateful for them. When you’re grateful for what you have and where you’ve come from, you’ll realise what’s important to you and you’ll be more likely to feel the desire to help others in similar situations.

A friend who helps you out when in your hour of need will never need to ask for your help in the future as you’ll be willing to give it freely.

Give something back

Put something back into your local community. Have a day off with the family. Invest in a startup. Pay back that loan to your parents. Volunteer your time to young entreprenurs. Or teach some schools kids about business and managing your money.

There are so many things you can do to give back something, ensuring that you’re still making a difference to others, while the money keeps coming in.

Random acts of kindness

When did you last do something kind for someone just because you could? We often get so drawn into our lives and make that first million that we forget the joy of doing something nice for another person just for the sake of it.

Put your neighbours’ bin out for them on bin day. Offer a lift to a stranger who’s getting soaked in the rain waiting for the bus. Make breakfast in bed for your partner. You get the idea (I hope).

I remember hearing a story of a boy whose parents had sent him out to shovel the snow off of the their drive. The boy, feeling in a good mood, decided to not stop at just his drive but in fact cleared the driveway of every house on the street. Now that’s a random act of kindness!

Just take a few minutes of your day to do something nice for someone else.

5 minute challenge

So before I go, I want to set you all a small challenge. It only takes a few minutes but will make sure you make a difference today, maybe for yourself or even for someone else.

Pick one of the 4 areas above and if you can, do one of them right now.

If you have worldlier ideas and want to do something much bigger that can’t be done in 5 minutes, then use the time to quickly plan out what you’re going to do to make a difference for someone else and how you’re going to do it.

Once you’ve done it, leave a comment below and share your experience with us.

Remember it doesn’t matter what you do as long as you make a difference.

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24 Comments »

Gordie - Lifestyle Design For You said:

Hey Ben,
Paying back debts is a good place to start. Since I left high school in 1993 I have probably received about 9 months of the unemployment benefit. When I’ve got my income flowing, I’d like to either pay it back or donate that total to some New Zealand charity. I will probably go with the latter as I think they will spend the money better than the government will.
Gordie – Lifestyle Design For You´s last blog ..Six Things You Should Do Daily To Succeed.