Passion and money, which one do you choose? Money is the sole driver for many dreamers. Money has the ability to make dreams come true. We cannot deceive ourselves about this. The whole idea that money cannot buy happiness I find a fallacy. A myth conjured by those who are weak and comfortable within the confines of being in the middle class. Most average people have the dream of driving a Range Rover, a Ferrari or living in an isolated estate in the country. Yet the need to be driven to obtain money seems to be the seed of evil. An evil that has been pulled over our eyes.
However, money isn’t everything. A common commodity such as money cannot be the sole purpose of human existence. Surely, there is a higher force that motivates and permits us to be alive. This purpose I believe is primarily fuelled by passion. A person who is passionate will stay up all night and will force themselves to fight the drags of morning slumber to pursue their passion. Passion in becoming the best of something or passion in finding something to eat, the emotion of passion gives humans that extraordinary levels of strength to become something greater then themselves. Passion, a strong feeling towards something, can drive any person to achieve the impossible.
I heard a guy speak about how he is passionate about being a teacher so that he can be in a position to influence the thinking of the future thinkers and leaders of the world. However, what is interesting, when this guy was presented the opportunity to become wealthy, his passion faded to the great extent of even dropping out of university in order to become wealthy. Money is the easy measure of someone’s wealth that is. It led me to ask the question then which factor of motivation is strong? Money to make you important in society and also enable you to experience the finer things in life or is it passion that when followed with due diligence can make you an important figure in society but not necessarily experience the finer things in life? How many great minds died broke because they believed “it isn’t about the money”? How dreams drown daily because of lack of funds? The downside of pursuing money over passion is that once one is in a better position financially then they were, they easily get content. This is seen with the growing bellies of many graduates who become lucky to become employed. One sees them in their university days skinny and living on shoestring budgets so naturally, an income that allows them to buy better food and enjoy life more, slowly sucks them into a state of comfort that becomes near impossible to escape. The downside of money is that the moment one gets a bit more of what they were used to; it is easy for them to settle.
I believe the easiness of becoming comfortable within our first paycheck as Black people stems from the past we come from. Our parents were programmed to survive first and the rest to come later. A racist teacher was once asked a simple question about the maintenance of my hometown Harrismith. She was asked what she thinks about what makes the municipality not care for the parks in town and so forth as the previous Apartheid municipality did. This teacher said that it is the fact that the white person has always had the privilege to enjoy the finer things in life than black people. For the black person, his primary task is to survive. He had no time to mend the garden and so forth because of the nature of his education and his role in the workforce. Unlike his white employer, the money he receives was enough to feed the mouths of his family and put clothes on their backs. The white employer however had the privilege to take enough off days to mend his gardens, go on vacations with his family and enjoy life. This was the reality of the day in those years. Therefore, when black people took over the municipality, the black person’s mind is programmed to survive and tasks such as mending to a park garden does not fall anywhere on the list of priorities. This racist comment obviously omits various factors and to a great extent, it is a lie. However, this comment made me think deeper when my previous employer told me that he knew the pervious major of the town and that the previous major in the Apartheid days had no salary for running the town. So historically, based on these two accounts, one could say that for the black man; passion was a luxury he could never afford. Money comes first because it guarantees his survival.
Moreover, these teachings of survival are continually passed down to us the new generation. It is seen in the high number of students who finish a degree and then come back to do another one because “there are more job opportunities” in their new educational paths. Some take the seemingly easy path to being a teacher or nurse because these were the jobs that the “wealthy” black people of the past worked in. Passion requires one to go against the currents and continually push oneself beyond one’s own limits. It always hits me with great awe that Tupac achieved all he achieved before 25. His insatiable passion to educate the minds of fellow black men drove him to the point it is said that he hardly ever slept. Passion to see a free and equal South Africa led Nelson Mandela to state powerful sayings that he is willing to die to see a free and equal South Africa. Passion somehow can become so powerful that it overrides the need to survive. Or rather, the need to survive too gets jet fuelled to a point that the human form no longer finds survival in something as common as money. Passion is a wonderful emotion for it allows one to aspire to something greater in life. The way I see it, fear has the ability to keep one a prisoner of something or free one from that something. Love leads one to an obsession, which can be good or bad. Passion however, passion is the key to our purpose on this Earth. Many middle class employees usually are the ones who cry about “a hole” in their hearts. I believe this hole is caused by the absence of passion in their hearts. They become so comfortable by surviving by way of money, they lose touch of their true higher selves.
Money can buy happiness, this I believe. However, money can never buy purpose. Purpose: the sole reason we exist. A shallow life is lived when one pursues only money. In most cases, those whose sole intention is to become wealthy are usually forgotten in the history books or end up world class con artists who eventually die broke nonetheless. It is amazing that when one hears the success stories of a Warren Buffet, Ray Dailo or Bill Gates, these wealth giants speak about how they simply want to be the best in what they do. The money for them is a measure of their success. This is profound. Someone like Tesla, his measure of success could have been something different. However, his passion in his studies has made him more immortal and important in the history books than many other wealthy people of his time. Obviously, there are wealthy people of note from his time but few have the cultural effect such as a Tesla. The passion to see a better world as seen with Mother Teresa speaks to how passion links one to purpose. Passion is the enabling emotion we need to tap into that which allows us to enter our higher selves and become truly immortal.
However, even with that said, personally I know for a fact I desire not to die broke. I too dream of the Maseratis and wearing tailor made clothing. As passionate as I may be in seeing a South Africa that will be filled with more philosophers than Slay Queens and Kings, an empty pocket is something I do not want. This refusal of a poverty stuck life led one to study and appreciate the art and science of entrepreneurship for I believe true financial freedom comes from entrepreneurship. The mix between the two however is what I find most interesting. The growl of a hungry stomach leads one to typing these essays and theories straight into the late hours. The interesting part is that I write to express my thoughts and understanding of matters with the hopes to open a platform of dialogue that will lead to a channel of thinking in our country. From these essays, I do not see how I can feed myself yet at the back of my mind, I know they have the greatest potential to being my emancipators from the clutches of living the middle class illusion. Passion seems to open the doors and light the path to obtain wealth. True wealth that one can never receive for working on someone else’s dream or idea.
The need to succeed in my passion leads one to seeing the commodity called money being a tool of seeing the realisation of my passion to take hold. Money, a lubricant that can enable one to acquire factors of productions to enable one to enjoy life. With passion burning fiercely within one’s heart, one can be in a position to enjoy life without the “emptiness” that haunts many. Fact will remain that money is a very important factor in our world. I believe this is why Lord Jesus said that we must give what is Caesar’s Caesar’s and what is the Lord’s to the Lord. Passion is what we give to the Lord, the Creator, the Universe that gives us the breath in our lungs. Money is what we give Caesar for a warm bed, warm food and warm clothing to keep our breath in our lungs healthy and clean.
No one wishes poverty upon himself or herself. With this, we understand how money robs us from our passion. Because passion can lead one into one form of poverty before entering the Promised Land. Almost every success story has that point where the protagonist of the story suffered greatly before wielding the cane of success. There are too many to count such stories. However, passion requires one to believe in themselves and to believe that they are a higher being than they are. For the Blackman who has been programmed to believe is the lowest of the low, to believe that he is higher than the highest, this is a feat too great to accomplish. Since we see the middle class being flooded by black people. The illusion of middle class- the illusion of success and wealth. This thinking has to change. Money should not be so powerful as to buy us out from our passion.
I close with this: would you rather sell your life by the hour for a wage? Or, would you rather live your life by the hour to enjoy a wage? The choice is in your hands: money or passion. You decide.