For many, one of the incredible perks of fame can be the fast and vast accumulation of lots of money. At the outset, this can look like a really great thing. After all, wouldn’t life be suddenly so much more fun and so much simpler with lots of money? Wouldn’t anybody’s life be improved with millions or billions of dollars?

Yes.

And, amazingly, no…

Obviously, in a world where one’s quality of life can be determined by money—the addition of more money can be wonderful—we suddenly have the freedom to buy a house (or a few), have as much food as we want, whatever toys we want, travel wherever we want, wear what we want, give to anyone we want. That’s a wonderful thing. Right?

Yes. It is a fantastic and fabulous gift. But, contrary to what our dreams about having money may tell us, it’s not always easy. If fact, the super-fast accumulation of money can actually verge on difficult or even, traumatic after the initial excitement wears off. And I’m not just talking about the sudden responsibility of taking care of that money, which can be a significant challenge on its own.

What I am talking about today is the fact that money, especially lots of it, can act like an incredible amplifier, bringing up EVERY thought, issue, and belief about money (and our worthiness of it) that we’ve ever had. Most people who suddenly earn or come into a vast amount of money have never had that kind of money before. This often means that their worldview and their sense of themselves must change for them to become comfortable with having their money. Think about this for a minute. What if you were someone who believed that money was bad? Or that the purpose of life is to work hard for money— and suddenly you find yourself never having to work again? What if none of your friends are used to being with someone with lots of money and have a lot of judgement or jealousy around it? What if your friends and family expect that if you have money, you owe them some? What if you feel like a fraud and feel like you don’t deserve that money? Or you feel guilty for having it?

For all the dreaming that so many of us do, saying, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a MILLION dollars! Or a BILLION!”, actually HAVING a million dollars (or more) and talking about the challenges of having it, depending who your friends and family are, can be really, really dicey. Talking about money in most circles is taboo. Why? Because it brings up everyone else’s money issues. It brings up jealousy in a lot of people. It brings up greed, inadequacy, resentment, competition, and any number of other feelings that don’t boil down to support which you may truly need.

Consider this: if you suddenly came into a TON of money (perhaps you already have), how many people do you know that you could confidently say would be THRILLED for you, expect nothing from you, have no issues about your having it, except for the wholehearted desire that you to enjoy it as you see fit and want to support you, with nothing in return, so that you can get comfortable with the fact that you’re now fabulously wealthy?

For most people who didn’t grow up wealthy, it’s a really good question. It can also explain one reason why rich people tend to hang out together—it can cut down on the stress of having lots of money.

So, if you have lots of money or if your dream is to have lots (and I mean LOTS!) what kind of support system do you have in place to streamline your transition into being comfortable with having it? Do you have people around you that you trust? Do you have people around you who, you’re reasonably sure, would be happy for you to have lots of money without expecting anything from you? Do you have trustworthy people you can go to for advice about taking care of your money? Or can you tell already that having money is going to cause problems with your friends and family—and if so, what can you do to remedy that now? And what about you? How’s your relationship with money? How’s your relationship with LOTS AND LOTS of money?

Being the steward of millions or billions of dollars can call into sharp focus how you feel about yourself and how you feel about money, while it brings up the same things in everyone around you. What can you do to get really, really comfortable with it so that having it won’t rock your world straight into the ground? So that you can be what most people want when they dream of being wealthy: you can be free.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 3rd, 2008 at 8:02 am and is filed under Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.