Here's an extremely simple question that I can't believe we've never asked on Celebrity Net Worth: What would you do if money was no object? Think about it for a minute. What if you never had to worry about bills ever again? You could buy a garage full of dream cars, pay off your mortgage, quit your job, send ten kids to college. Under this dream scenario, how would you actually spend your days and enjoy your life?
This is obviously a fun question to debate and dream about, but it's also a serious question. Serious enough that world-renowned British philosopher Alan Watts would pose it to all of his students at the end of a semester. Before he died in 1973 at the age of 58, Watts wrote 25 extremely popular books on subjects that bridged Western and Eastern philosophies and religions. Though he was considered one of the foremost pioneers of the Zen Buddhism movement in the Western world, his personal worldview consisted of a mix between Hinduism, modern science, ancient Chinese philosophy and Panentheism (the belief that everything in nature is God, or vice versa).
Before I say anymore, do yourself a favor and watch this three minute video featuring one of Alan Watts' most famous lectures, "What if Money was no Object?":
Just to be clear, Alan is not advising everyone to quit their job and go live in the woods with no money. In my opinion, he's highlighting the concept that we all need to find something we love to do, and then go do that. If we do what we love, we'll eventually become masters at that and get paid a ton of money for it. Or as Malcolm Gladwell would put it in his fantastic book "Outliers", figure out what you love to do and practice it for 10,000 hours. Gladwell believes it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become a master of any craft. Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Eminem… these are all people who have become masters at some profession which happen to come with an extraordinary large paycheck. Plus, assuming these people loved what they practicing while they were practicing, it's a win win. It doesn't matter if you don't ever become Eminem, as long as you enjoy waking up and going to practice (work) ever day.
As Alan Watts says, it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to spend money doing things you don't like. Equally crazy would be to spend your time doing something you hate to have one week of vacation a year where you finally get to do something you love.
So what do you think now? What would you do if money was no object?
