Gary Vee is one of my favorite entrepreneurs of today. His net worth is $50 million, yet he says he knows many multimillionaires who lost health due to the pursuit of wealth and are miserable people, hating what they do.

Gary Vee

He says that not many people love to work all the time, like he does. He even buys and sells in his free time, as business is his passion. He claims that making a million or more a year is indeed possible, but that will require a lot of daily hard work, and do you really want to spend your life this way?

Gary insists that most people would be much happier if they, instead of pursuing the media’s exalted ideal of wealth, would earn little yet have plenty of time to enjoy themselves and do something meaningful with their lives.

Luxurious living means working very hard every day to maintain it, and that’s not for everyone.

He insists that most people would be much more joyous if they would earn enough through their self-expression to lead simple life, and then spend the rest of the time in any way that they please.

I fall into this category. I don’t earn much. But I’m really happy.

That’s because I earn through my creativity, and then I have a lot of time to enjoy the fruits of my labor and do what I please, such as developing myself and traveling.

I love staying in India and when I’m there, I stay in budget hotels and my best entertainment doesn’t involve any money at all – taking daily sunset walks.

Even today half of my waking hours were spent cycling in a nearby village as it’s beautiful there. Then I came back to my land (I recently purchased rural land in Lithuania), did some gardening work, and here I am, writing this piece.

I lead a very simple, yet deeply fulfilling life. I do what I want, and such freedom of self-expression is the most important thing to me.

I believe that if people would deeply think over what’s most important to them, they too would find that freedom is a bigger priority than wealth. But because most people are seduced by the media-portrayed ideal life of opulence, they don’t even take time to assess what are the matters of the greatest importance.

Listen to “Don’t Be Afraid to Have Less Than Others” on Spreaker.

And what’s even worse, they see all the people around them displaying their newest gadgets, driving the cars purchased with loans, living in lavish houses that they’re deeply in debt for.

What’s all this display for? What’s the point of living a nicely-decorated lie? If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Otherwise debt will take away your freedom.

There’s no need of copying people who try hard to impress others with purchases that aren’t in harmony with their true financial condition. That kind of life is what’s considered a poor man’s way to impress others.

Good times don’t last forever, so should the economy crash, such people would quickly go from a luxurious facade to extreme poverty.

I just recently read an 1867 book on wealth principles and here’s what the millionaire author says about people who live beyond their means:

People in this situation vainly imagine that their real deficiencies and faults do not appear, like the ostrich, which hides his head in the sand or a bush, and conceives that his huge, ungainly form is similarly obscured.

How to Make Money, and How to Keep It by Thomas Alfred Davies

Yes, some people indeed would thrive working hard every day to build wealth empires. And yes, some individuals are bigger than life and their self-expression attracts millions of dollars. But those are very few, and your road might be totally different.

If you try to copy others you may miss your own unique purpose in life. And finding as well as materializing what your special gift to the world is is much more empowering than copying someone else’s.

Instead of obsessing with running after the media-created dream of wealth, it’s best to focus on finding and developing your gifts and becoming the best version of yourself.

If this attracts wealth, so be it. And if it doesn’t, at least you thoroughly enjoyed your life and can boast of having lived meaningfully.

Hi, I'm Simona Rich, the author of this site.

I'm from Lithuania, though most of the time you'll find me somewhere in Asia.

I write about spirituality and self-improvement, and consult on those topics.

Let's connect on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. My bio is here...