Tribe Journal
How NOT to become a millionaire
So you want to be a millionaire. Does it matter how you get there?
Lets consider a totally hypothetical situation for a moment. you’re sitting in your million dollar home, maybe enjoying a drink on a hot day. Your son comes running up to you wide eyed and asks if you can play in the pool. You go for it. Then you recline a bit and decide to check your phone. A few messages. One from the charity that will put your name on the building. Another from your lawyers. Maybe it was that suit from your old investors. Or maybe it is about a lawsuit against your old pharmaceutical business that prayed on the addictions or illness of others. Or maybe that partner from whom you wronged for your own selfish personal gain. Or the employees that broke their backs trying to make a living wage without a safe working environment while you took tens of millions to the bank. The scenarios are endless but you get the idea.
So... you want to be a millionaire. Does it matter how you get there? Does it matter how many heads you stomp on to climb? Does it matter how many ideas you steal? Does it matter how many people you exploit? Or how many casualties you create with your opinion?
You want to be a millionaire. Does it matter how you get there?
We learn a huge lesson from the Israelites encamped in the dessert post miraculously leaving Egyptian slavery. Each of twelve tribes were encamped in a specific formation. Three in the front, three in the side, three in the back and three on the other side. Each tribe flew a flag with its own color and a letter.
AYY
MKV VTzA
RChK
Together the first letter of each side formed the word
Avram/Abram
Then the second letter
Yitzchak/Isaac
And the third spelled
Yaakov/Jacob
But isn’t it Avra-h-am with a Hey (H)? Yes. The Hey, representing G-d’s Divine presence, dwelled in the midst of the nation when the nation is encamped around the shared values...in the case of the Israelites it is the Torah from Sinai that they recently accepted upon themselves to put G-d’s will into action and understand it more deeply. Don’t steal, don’t murder, practice family values and morality, don’t eat pork, give and bring honor to your parents….and so on and so forth. That was what united 12 tribes together as a nation with more than just a flag to fly, but a mission to uphold. To be different, to be holy. Of course at times we all fall short of our missions as does any aspiring individual, organization, community or country with high aspirations.... But our national mission-centric existence works when we’re united around our shared values. I suppose any country might do well to ask this question. What is the glue that unites us? What is our country’s mission? Our country’s shared values? Those values that unite and define us?
But every individual can also ask the same questions. Let me explain.
Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi in his famous work, The Kuzari, explains that just like the governor of a city must take care of all of the needs of its citizens and keep the diverse and dynamic population happy, so too the individual must do the same with the many different facets of one’s self. Cities have artists, athletes, scientists, farmers, cooks, lawyers and justice systems, etc. etc. So too, each of us has so many different aspects of our “self,” each with aspect with its own needs, which must be met.
You are dynamic. You are
An artist,
An athlete,
An academic,
A food connoisseur,
A master of self defense,
A healer,
A social worker,
A teacher,
A student,
A giver.
You, the governor of your own individual dynamic world must take your entire self into consideration.
But why not take this idea a step further? What shared value do your “citizens” unite around? What mission do your “citizens” rally to achieve? What defines you as a person? Who are you?
Internal conflict and disharmony arises when different aspects of self get pulled in different opposing directions. Deeply understanding the “citizens” of our unique “world” enables us to guide ourselves in a direction enabling us to live happier, productive and more harmonious lives.
You want to be a millionaire, but it so very much matters how you get there. So where does one start? Well ...sometimes the most challenging part is getting the courage to simply….begin.
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