Now let’s consider the contributor mind-set, which recognizes that the best way to make money is to provide fair value in exchange. Create genuine social value and receive payment commensurate with that value. Due to market inefficiencies, sometimes you’ll be underpaid and sometimes you’ll be overpaid, but the basic idea is that you earn money by contributing.
If you want to earn income as a contributor, you must impart social value, not personal value. Many would-be contributors get stuck on this concept. Personal value is whatever you say it is. You’re free to decide what has value for you personally, and it doesn’t matter if anyone agrees with you. Social value, however, is determined by social consensus. If you believe that your work has tremendous value, but virtually no one else does, then your work may have high personal value but little or no social worth. The key point: your income depends on the social value of your work, not the personal value.
The principle of love advises us to tune in and connect with the concept of money on a deeper level, so let’s do exactly that and see what the process reveals.
There are two ways to earn money:
1. Make a meaninful social contribution, and receive payment commensurate with the social value of your contribution.
2. Take advantage of market inefficiencies to extract money without contributing any substantial value.
The first option includes getting a job and performing useful work, running a business that provides valuable products or services, reselling items with value added, or investing in any of these outlets. The second option includes gambling, begging, criminal activities, buying and reselling items with no added value, or investing in any of these.
What is money? Money is a social resource—the primary social resource. Money has no inherent value of its won, but we assign it value through social agreement. If you have $100, you can withdraw $100 of value from society by spending that money. The reason this works is that we agree by consensus that $100 has a certain value. If we all agreed that money was worthless, it would have no value whatsoever.
Because it’s a social resource, money isn’t a perfect medium of exchange. The value of anything, including money itself, is determined by social consensus. That may be the agreement of only two people, such as when you buy an item from another person. Or it may be the consensus of a large group, such as when you buy or sell stock in public companies.
It’s undeniable that money plays an important role in our lives, but what exactly is that role? Is money a harmful distraction, or can it actually help us live more consciously? Is it better to give or to receive? Is poverty more enlightened than wealth?
Even among highly conscious individuals, money can be a contentious, polarizing topic. Social conditioning overloads us with so many conflicting views on the subject that it’s no wonder people are confused. Confusion about money causes us to compartmentalize the financial part of our lives. Money becomes a thing unto itself with its own rules and formulas. We literally treat it as something that must be cordoned off and sealed in a vault, isolated from other parts of our lives lest it somehow infect us with its inhuman properties.
To build an authentic career, you need to find the path that keeps you aligned with truth, love, and power. This requires paying attention to the following four questions:
Body (needs): What must I do?
Mind (abilities): What can I do?
Heart (desire): What do I want to do?
Spirit (contribution): What should I do?
An authentic career is found in the place where all four of these questions produce the same answer. This is the career that meets your needs, leverages your abilities, fulfills your desires, and makes a positive contribution to others. This means that your body, mind, heart, and spirit are aligned with truth, love, and power.
Where is the career path with a heart—the path that terrifies you, the path that stirs your soul, the path you secretly fantasize about? That’s the path that honors the real you. That’s the path that keeps you aligned with truth, love, and power. If you aren’t doing something that scares you and challenges you, you’re playing the game of life too timidly, missing golden opportunities that could make a real difference. If your career path doesn’t require courage, you’re in the wrong career.
If you avoid all risk, you only weaken yourself. If you follow the heart-centered path, you can expect to take risks from time to time. Some will turn out in your favor; some won’t. If your decisions are made intelligently, however, the cumulative effect will almost certainly be positive, in many cases to an enormous degree.
Use your career to do work that truly matters to you. Be the commander-in-chief of your life, not the grunt. Don’t labor just to pay your bills, to satisfy your boss, or to make someone else rich. Work for the ongoing betterment of yourself and others.
A consequence of living a principle-centered life is that you’ll naturally attract and accept more responsibility, eventually rising into a leadership role. This may include the external trappings of authority such as a management position, but it may also manifest as a less formal ability to influence others. Either way, such principle-centered leadership is well deserved. It’s intelligent for all of us to be guided by those who are truthful, loving, and powerful. Those who succumb to falsehood, apathy, or timidity don’t make good leaders.
Your career choice isn’t merely an individual matter. Your choices in this area affect us all. Oneness encourages you to consider your career impact on an even deeper level. What can you do to make a positive difference in the world? What are you here to contribute? Will your contributions be physical, mental, social, scientific, artistic, moral, or something else?
Your career is your primary outlet for contribution. Do your current choices honor the fact that we’re all connected, or do you live entirely for yourself at the expense of others? It isn’t enough to do no harm. You must commit to doing good.
