Words such as millionaire, multimillionaire and billionaire carry a magic and compelling ring. Understandably enough, many people are mesmerized by those words, by what they think those words imply—and by the thought of piling up a personal fortune as an end in itself.
These people seem to believe that every millionaire has his millions in ready cash, stored in strongboxes beneath his bed or in a handy wall safe in his library, to hold or squander according to his whim. They also apparently believe that money can buy them everything and solve all their problems.
In the case of a “working” millionaire—a wealthy individual actively engaged in business—nothing could be further from the truth. In the first place, although a businessman may be “worthy” many millions of dollars, precious little of his wealth is in fluid, spendable cash. His fortune is invested—tied up—in land, buildings, machinery, equipment, raw materials, finished-product inventories, in all the things which make up his business and keep it in operation.
Certainly, only a minute fraction of any working businessman’s fortune is ever available to him as personal cash on hand unless he chooses to go out of business and liquidates his holdings by selling them. But the successful businessman very seldom sells out. He knows that wealth which serves no constructive purpose has no real justification for its existence. It might be said that he views business as a creative art. He uses his money as capital, investing and reinvesting it to create businesses and jobs and produce goods and services.
The successful businessman also knows that wealth does not automatically grant him a year-round, no-limit license for fun-filled frolic. He is well aware that money has the power to do many things for people—but he also realizes that money can do many things, bad as well as good, to people, their private lives, personalities and moral and intellectual values.
Money can do things for people—and it can also do many things to them. What money does for or to a particular individual is largely dependent on a rich man’s moral and intellectual standards, his outlooks and his attitudes toward life.
If he’s a businessman, the important consideration is what he does with his money. The best use he can make of it is to invest it in enterprises which produce more and better goods and services for more people at lower cost. His aim should be to create and operate businesses which contribute their share to the progressive upward movement of the world’s economy, and which thus work to make life better for all. Therein lies the justification for wealth, and therefrom does the working businessman derive the greatest sense of satisfaction.
* Source: How to Be Rich by J. Paul Getty