Get Rich and Be Happy, Right? Wrong.

During my final Negotiations class last semester, my Professor handed us a story titled “Maintaining Perspective” (also called “The Parable of the Mexican”). Read it. It’s awesome and only a few hundred words long. To me, the moral of story is about how society often thinks about how to make buckets of money without truly taking a second to understand why. If we spent more time understanding why we want to make money, then we could focus on those goals rather than just making money in order to live a more fulfilling life.

According to me and my personal experiences, this is exactly right. I am incredibly grateful to have grown up with people where things like private jets, ultra-luxury cars, and massive penthouses are not completely outside of the norm. This sounds like the dream life to most but what I’ve noticed is that these material images of wealth don’t do much to bring true lasting happiness. Buying a new fancy car may be exhilarating but, like getting a new phone, that feeling eventually dies down. I think the issue of thinking that money = happiness stems from society’s perception. We are often impressed by people based on the car they drive or the watch they’re wearing but I don’t think we should look at what these people own but focus more on what they have done. Often times, the two are connected but sometimes they’re not. An extreme example of this is if you win the lottery. If you win the lottery, you’ll probably have a ton of wealth but I’d argue that it does not buy you lasting happiness. By that same token, if you inherit a large sum of money, it doesn’t make you happier. What makes you happy, I would argue, is the journey to making money. The reason why I think it’s important for students like ourselves to think about this is because (and this is going to sound cliche) I think we focus too much on the end goal (in this example, money) rather than the actual journey. I think we often give answers that resemble reasonable arguments such as “I want to learn” or “I want to make a difference” when many of us really just want to make a ton of money. I’m not saying everyone or even a majority of students feel this way but I’d be willing to bet there’s a good number out there. Regardless, I think most of us need to revisit what the purpose of money is in our lives and live more for the journey rather than the end goal.

I think the same focus-on-the-journey argument applies to recruiting and OCR. As a junior about to enter spring semester, I’ve already heard numerous complaints about how tedious the whole process is and how much work it takes. It represents our tendency to focus on end goals (in this case, a job) and what’s next rather than just being in the present. As Penn students, we go to one of the most well respected universities in the world yet we spend a whole semester or two (or even more) on securing a job for after college. If I were to tell my clueless high school senior self that he would be at Penn spending most of my time for a few semesters trying to secure a job, he would be extremely disappointed. We have all worked so hard to come here to learn as much as we can from classes and one another so why do we spend so much time chasing future opportunities? Think of it this way: you’ll probably work at your job out of college for 2 years. Everyone cites they want a fantastic job to learn quickly and position themselves for other opportunities. But you’re spending a year of your time in college, where your only real responsibility is to learn, to find a job of 2 years. Then once you get to that elusive job, what’s to stop you from focusing on the next job rather than fully immersing yourself in that experience?

As my Negotiations Professor would say “Figure out what you really really want and work toward that.” So stop, breathe, and take some time to live in the present toward your goals.