Money & the meaning of life: Part 7

Given what you've said about surviving success and what getting rich suddenly can do to people, what's your definition of success?

To be totally engaged with all my functions, all my faculties, all my capacities in life. To me that would be success.

I grew up around the Yiddish language, and in Yiddish there are about 1,000 words that mean "fool." There's only one word that means an authentic human being: mensch. My grandmother would say, "You've got to be a mensch," and that has to do with what we used to call character. To be successful means to have developed character.

So how does a philosopher understand money and the meaning of life?

As the ancients said, we are angels and devils at the same time -- and sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the two. Sometimes the two masquerade as each other. Caring for your friends and family and children is part of being in this world, though it may seem a spiritual act. Getting your kid through college is not a spiritual act but part of being in the world. At the same time, working and making money can have a spiritual dimension.

We philosophers can't really figure this out better than anyone else. And money alone can't buy you an answer. Only worldly experience with lots of adventures and making lots of money may finally let you come away from it saying, "There's something money can't buy. I can't put my finger on it, but I sense it."

And the ultimate connection between money and work?

You should be looking for the joy, the struggle, and the challenge of work. What you bring forth from your own guts and heart. The happiness of hard work. No amount of money can buy that. Those are things of the spirit (via fastcompany).