We commonly make the mistake of equating wealth with happiness. Since money can buy you every material thing you feel that it would keep you happy all the time. The books on luxury branding would like you to believe that but Felix Dennis, the British publishing tycoon, poet and author has a completely contrary view about wealth. He always seems to have wise words about getting and being rich. How to Get Rich was his first book. He believes that you need at least $150 million to be rich in the true sense of the word. According to him having $2 million to $4 million can simply keep you in comfort in relative poverty and not what you need for luxury living.
Felix hits the nail on the head when he highlights the fact that the ultra rich find it very difficult to know their actual worth because of the ring of financial advisors around them. Dennis has released a new book called The Narrow Road. Though the book is mostly a life map for entrepreneurs, it also contains advice on being rich and also highlights things money can’t buy. He believes that for the really rich, their wealth breeds a kind of permanent malcontent. It is partly the result of the stress and strain in obtaining and protecting it and partly from the guilt that inevitably accompanies its arrival.
Poor are not a happy lot but according to Felix the rich are not a contented tribe. Protecting their wealth from demands of sharing it is so great that the rich tend to insulate themselves leading to a mild form of paranoia. They feel comfortable with only those who knew them before they became wealthy. For the newly rich, the increased pressures make their world a narrower and a less generous place. In any case most of the rich feel that they have earned their wealth at the cost of their personal lives, relationships and health. In a way the misery of the rich helps the society as a whole to generate more wealth.
