Would you rather have a life of comfortable luxury or a life of significance

[AsburySkinsFan]

On 6/16/2017 at 2:36 PM, Riggo-toni said:

 

No cheating. You would have signed some contract giving another company rights ie Tesla selling rights to Westinghouse, or you would have sold the painting for a few hundred bucks before it becomes revered (ie Van Gogh), or whatever. Maybe you get just enough cash at the end of life to make your golden years secure, but not luxurious.

Yeah based on that, give me the 50 million. I've trued the life of significance before and it was lonely, meager existence. I remember looking in an envelope with $200 left with a family and rent coming due. I don't need the applause and recognition of others, those things are meaningless to me. They are a white carnation at your retirement ceremony. 

 

No illusions here, I'm not trying to take anything with me, instead I'm now trying to leave a legacy behind. One where the generations who follow can be provided for by what I leave them.

 

Instead, give me the cash and an investor mastermind group who can help me develop long term sustainable structures that produce solid ROI.

[Riggo-toni]

Being unhappy or impoverished is definitely not a requirement for scenario 2, nor does initial recognition have to be entirely post-mortem. The idea is that you don't strike it rich with your invention/discovery/creation. Tesla and the invention of AC turbines is perhaps the closest example to what I'm suggesting. When it became clear Tesla's generator would make Edison's DC generators obsolete, JP Morgan, who had financed Edison, launched lawsuits against Westinghouse in order to bankrupt him before the first large scale generator could be built. In order to help George Westinghouse attract enough investors to move forward, Tesla signed over his patents to Westinghouse. Thanks to him, all our homes have electricity. Modern life as we know it might not exist otherwise. 

Also, whatever you come up with for scenario 2 can be massively important as long as it's realistic. Much more so than what $30m (after taxes) in research would buy. Imagine finding a cure or vaccine for HIV or Alzheimer's, or discovering the "theory of everything" that reconciles gravity with atomic forces.

One thought I had would be inventing a solar cell that is so efficient and inexpensive that it gets built into the roof of every car and new home. Electric cars then have unlimited range during daylight, and the payback time for installation of solar cells goes from 20 years or so to less than 5. I figure this will set off a race to improve battery storage, setting off a ripple effect that increases standards of living and is enormously beneficial to the environment. I get recognition for it, but for various legal scenarios, maybe only make about 50k from it.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Tesla was indeed influential and significant, he also died fighting nearly continuously with those who stole his patents and with those who slandered him. 

 

Give me what John Goodman in the Gambler called, "The position of **** you".

[Going Commando]

Wow I wasn't even being as ambitious as curing a major disease.  I was thinking more along the lines of writing a good novel/work of history that is judged as excellent and important in literary/history circles.  Yes, absolutely I would rather cure Alzheimer's than pretty much anything else I could do with my life.  You're frickin ridiculous if you choose 50 million dollars of hedonism over that.  But seeing as I don't know dick about science or medicine, that doesn't feel like it should be on the table.

[gbear]

I answered this quickly last week, but as I thought about it over the weekend I realized I still feel the same way about the question now as I did in 2011.  In 2011, I was going through one of my many stretches of sleepless nights when I wrote the following:

 

A Good Man

A man is a lucky somebody who has grown out of the selfish myopic teenage years.

He is somebody capable of looking out at his world and what needs to be done,

what is being left undone by others be they capable or incapable.

A good man is introspective enough to know his talents and his passions.

Once he has looked both inward and outward, a  good man may plot his path.

 

A good man never stops looking, both inward and outward for the only constant is change.

A good man is mindful of others and their perspectives.

A good man seeks solace and comfort in his efforts.

For if he can take comfort in his work, the fear of starting over need never discourage.

 

A good man is ever mindful of his footprints both in his family and community.

His life is marked by joys many who chose other lives never imagine much less enjoy,

whether it be pride in the path of those who follow

or the true company received only by the honest.

 

A good man does what he can, when he can, until he can’t.

At the end of the day, a good man can look in the mirror,

see the haggard face of any age and take solace in his life well lived.

 

I endeavor, though sometimes fail, to be the good man.

Don’t we all?

A Good Man

----------------------------------------

As I read through the thread, I remember money is rarely what makes people happy.  I know quite a few miserable rich people, and plenty of happy people with far less than what I have.  For those who say all they want is the money and they will be happy, I wonder how hard they have thought about what they really need to be happy?  Is it the touch of a beautiful, loving woman or perhaps a baby's baby laugh?  Maybe it's the faithfulness of a dog.  All I know is the best things I have experienced in my life were not the result of a purchase.  They were dividends from investments of my time, effort and emotions.   

[RichmondRedskin88]

The money for setting up my family for life and traveling.

 

Now if you ask the idea of being rich vs a life that is rich in other ways like love and friendship I'd take having a fulfilling life over money.  

[mcsluggo]

people are assuming that $$$ is for extravagance, hookers and drugs.

 

i would choose option 1, in a heartbeat, for simplicity and security.   To know that my wife, my three daughters, and I could live peacefully and secure without <as much> chance that a catastrophe could knock us off our perch and into a pit of insecurity and fear.    

 

that is priceless to me.  

 

I a glad that others are driven to achieve....   I just want to keep myself and my family secure enough that we have a good chance to be content and happy.    

[Riggo-toni]

2 hours ago, mcsluggo said:

people are assuming that $$$ is for extravagance, hookers and drugs.

No, not for drugs...just escorts, divorce, and nice digs.