Spirtual Wealth

There’s an old story about a man who walks by a construction site and sees workmen pushing wheelbarrows, each filled with an enormous stone.

He asks one what they’re doing.

“What does it look like?” he says with a sneer. “Hauling rocks.”

Unsatisfied with that answer, the passerby asks another construction worker the same question.

The workman doesn’t bother looking up. “We’re putting up a wall.”

Frustrated, the man tries one last time. “I say there,” he asks the next fellow, “can you tell me what you men are doing here?”

The workman puts down his wheelbarrow, wipes his forehead and says with a broad smile, “We’re building a cathedral.”

Here are three men, all doing the same job. One is hauling rocks. One is putting up a wall. One is building a cathedral.

This story says a lot about the attitude that each of us brings to our lives… or could if we were willing to change our perspective.

My primary occupation, for example, is writing investment advice. One reason I write is to meet my overhead. To that extent, I’m hauling rocks.

A greater objective is to help build a publishing business. The more successfully we market ourselves, the more readers we attract, the better our business performs. To that extent, I’m putting up walls.

But the real objective of my writing is to help readers achieve and maintain financial independence. When I stay focused on that, I’m building a cathedral. (And, not incidentally, meeting my lesser goals, as well.)

Idealists will counter that creating wealth has nothing to do with building cathedrals. They are mistaken.

You can improve yourself, voice your opinions, or organize around a cause without cash. But you won’t effect much change in your community – or build an actual cathedral – without it.

Contrary to what some believe, money isn’t about having “more stuff.” Money is independence. It liberates you from want, from work that is drudgery, from relationships that confine you.