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Did somebody tell you being rich might be lonely?

 Many people think that being rich is the best thing in life. You can afford anything in life, you can buy nice cars and vacation houses, you can own a yacht even an airplane, you can buy all the fancy clothes, you can travel anywhere you want on your jet or a commercial airliner’s business class, you can buy expensive wine and dine at fancy restaurants. Well it’s all true but if you realized what is missing from this short list is the things that you can not buy with money such as love, friends and relationships with people.
In fact being rich is sometimes a lonely experience. Most of your life you might be working your *** off to reach your goal and in the meantime you might not have too much time for fun, for friends or a serious relationship. This period might be very stressful both mentally and financially as you might fail several times in your business, you might be in the red financially often and you might not even get a good night sleep.
Then let’s say your business gets more stable financially and you seem to be on the right track. Then you start to grow and as you grow you meet new challenges that take your energy away from your possible ordinary life. New competitors enter who might be copying what you do or how you do it, you hire employees whose goal is not the same as yours and might not be as motivated as you and it might stress you out. Then you might meet new legal challenges, you might have to adopt to new economic conditions, and you might have to restructure and rebuild some parts of your organizations.
Then let’s assume you become really successful. You might make millions of dollars already and it took you two decades of dedication and hard work. Now you think it is time to enjoy your success. You start to travel to places you always wanted to go to, you buy new sports cars and a yacht and you elevate your living standard by buying a nicer house by the beach, by dining at nice places and by becoming a club member in an elite golf club.
The only people you meet regularly are like you with similar lifestyles, with similar selfish goals to become rich and some other arrogant people. These people all think they are better than others, they think they are more worthy because their wallet is thicker. You become one of them.
You either choose a partner from among them or you are up to be with someone who wants your money. You also stuck with these people as your friends and your conversation topics are limited to everything luxury magazines write. You either accept it and embrace it or you are screwed.
You lose your connection to the real world and you become lonely; very lonely in very rich surroundings. And there is hardly any road back. You get used to it since you are in it, in this lifestyle for decades. You get used to having fake friendships and dishonest friends who would screw you over financially if they could. And even if you establish your family, most likely your kids become part of this circle.
I know it very well. I am a millionaire with three companies and three divorces in my life. I have my yacht and a Porsche but I see my kids very rarely and even during those short visits they want more money from me to be able to buy a nicer car. I have no real friends even though everybody who knows I am wealthy want to be friendly. I have no social life other than among these other business people, I have not experienced what real love is and even today after so many years I have sleepless nights caused by some business matters.
Is there anything I would change looking back? Yeah. I would stop at having a small company that provides a good living, one that provides you enough not to have financial problems in life. One that does not take your own life away from you, one that lets you experience your life emotionally, spiritually and mentally.

http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Want-To-Tell-You-An-Inspirational-Story/1072172

An Old Note

My grandparents passed away about 10 years ago when I was still a teenager. My grandfather was very close to me and he was not only a dear grandfather figure to me but also a life mentor who gave me advices about life, love and whatever other things I needed advice on. His advices helped me a lot and caused always a sense of relief in my life especially in harder times or when facing difficult choices and decisions.
When he was gone, I had a hard time in life; I felt emptiness and lack of guidance. It is not that my parents were not there for me or I did not have friends to talk to, but no one knew me as well as Grandpa. He knew me so deep that he could tell from my body reactions how I was and from the way I was breathing he could tell how I felt.
For almost a year after his death I was living aimlessly not knowing my own direction. I just existed and was trying to find guidance in my life. It was a very difficult period. I went to the cemetery almost every weekend and just stood and stared there at his headstone. Slowly as pain vanished and I matured as a person I gradually became independent with my own decisions. I did not ask for advice from anyone and I decided on things and chose among alternatives in life as my Grandpa would have suggested or picked.
Then about at age 25, after I graduated from college, I was offered an overseas opportunity to work as a business development manager for the company I worked for. The only problem was I was dating a guy for a year and a half and I thought it was getting very serious. In my mind I was picturing myself as his wife and as the mother of his kids so I thought this opportunity might have just come at the wrong time.
They were supposed to send me off to Spain in two months time and basically I was given a month to think about my decision. My boss told me it is a once in a lifetime opportunity and there were others at the company waiting on the list if I happened to decline it. This month was a stressful time every day I woke up and every night I went to bed with the thoughts of what happens if I go or if I don’t. My major concern obviously was my then boyfriend and the possibility of losing him. I truly loved him and I really wanted to settle with him.
During this one month period I went to visit my parents in Oklahoma where they still lived in the same house. Before one of the dinners my dad sent me down to the basement to pick a bottle of wine for the dinner. The very back section of the basement had a lot of boxes and before I went to the wine cellar section I went to the back to see what were in those boxes.
I do not know why but randomly I reached for one of the boxes and I pulled it towards the light. It was heavy so I was sure there were books in it. I opened it and then I saw some books that belonged to Grandpa. He loved to read and especially after my grandmother passed away, he escaped to reading from his pain. I picked up one of the books and as I opened the cover a small old note fell from it. I picked it up and immediately I recognized Grandpa’s handwriting. The note was a short quote from Saint Augustine and it said “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
I put the note in my jeans’ back pocket and I picked a bottle of wine. As I walked up the stairs I felt relieved and this relief felt exactly the same as the relief I felt when I was a teenager and Grandpa gave me an advice on something. I had a pleasant dinner with my parents and I told them I was going to Spain. This sentence came out me naturally and without any hesitation. After dinner I went up to my room and I called my boyfriend to tell him about my decision.
Two months later I was already in Spain and we agreed with my boyfriend to try a long distance relationship and when he finished his graduate school in a year he would join me. Emotionally it was tough and I was crying a lot. There were times when I even questioned my decision that I made based on a note, based on a quote that Grandpa might have liked for whatever reason. But in a about a month, I became sure it was the right choice.
My best friend called me up and told me that a couple of times she saw my boyfriend hand in hand with a girl in a bar and they seemed very intimate together. I was furious. I called him up and we had a huge fight. We called each other different names and basically we broke up. I was depressed and I was not sure if to stay in Spain in this difficult emotional situation or go back to the States. After some alone time and reading Grandpa’s note a few more times I stayed and it seems that his ‘advice’ paid off. I met a guy from Australia whom I got married to after a year of dating. We are still happily married, now living our lives back in the States and we are happily raising our two beautiful daughters.
Thanks a lot Grandpa !

wisestories.com

A WISE STORY: Never say never

I was always against every type of plastic surgery and frankly I was not a big fan of people who had plastic surgeries either. I have been trying to remain as natural as possible myself and I considered plastic surgeries as unnatural body manipulations.
When I was going to college there was a girl in my team for a marketing class who visibly had operations on her body and face. To put it into words how I felt, I was slightly disgusted by it. Of course another thing I did not like her was her personality her pretended superiority over other ‘non-beautiful people’.
After finishing school as a marketing major I did not find a job for a while. It was a hard time for me, because I needed the money so bad. I had debt from student loans, from credit cards and I owed some money to my sister as well. Finally I was called in for an interview but ironically it was a group of plastic surgeons who were looking for a marketing assistant who helped their office to put together marketing materials and choose the appropriate marketing channels for their ads.
 The interview went really well and a week later I was hired. After they called me to tell me the news, I had to go to a nearby park and make a decision to accept the job or not. It was not an easy decision because as I mentioned I was against the concept of plastic surgeries. My financial burden on my shoulder caused by my debt though could not let me not accept this job. It was just too long I could not find a job and the amount I owed was too big to ignore this opportunity. I called them back and the following Monday I was working for them.
I would not say that it was not difficult to put aside my prejudices and for a couple of days I felt like fish out of water. But the doctors were extremely nice and were trying to make me feel comfortable. The second day Dr. Smith, the head surgeon and the owner of this business sat down with me and explained what my job would be, what his goals were and then of course more specifically about certain marketing issues. Then he talked about his company, the other doctors and finally the history of the company.
He said he was a regular surgeon working for a hospital. He said he lived a happy life for almost 30 years with his family. He had a beautiful daughter and a loving wife. Then one day he got news from the local police department that his daughter’s body was found not far from the city limits. She jumped in front of a train at the age of 16.
On top of the pain of losing his daughter, what was troubling for him was that Dr. Smith did not find a motive for a while why his beloved daughter took her own life at such a young age. He said his daughter was a regular girl and he seemed a happy girl. He said she had issues with her body because she was a bit overweight and she voiced this issue at times but other than that she was fine. They even sent her to a psychotherapist with these body image issues, but according to the psychotherapist they did not seem so serious.
Then he said a couple of months after the accident he found a letter among the pages of one of her favorite books. As Dr. Smith mentioned about this letter he opened his desk drawer and pulled out an envelope. There was a picture of his daughter in the envelope and this particular letter. He looked out the window of his office and he continued. He said this letter written by his daughter was not addressed to anybody specifically and it was not a farewell letter either. It was just a note that showed the struggle his daughter had gone through because of her body image issues.
Then Dr. Smith’s phone was ringing and he excused himself and left the room. I was just sitting at the table looking at his daughter’s photo. She was such a beautiful girl. Based on the photo she seemed a larger girl but she was just so pretty.
When Dr. Smith came back he looked at me and said ‘you know these body image issues can be solved. If the psychotherapy sessions do not work we can solve it easily. I believe that my daughter would still be alive today if she had a liposuction and small nose job. I know some people are against it, I was against it too long time ago. But then again if these people could choose between allowing a plastic surgery to a loved one or risking losing them forever, they would opt the plastic surgery.’
I looked at him and he had tears in his eyes. He looked back at me and said ‘that is why I chose to cross over to become a plastic surgeon, to provide an outlet, a survival for people who have body image issues.’
Then he left. I stood up looked out the same window he stared before and went out to my small office to did myself into the marketing of this place that still after 5 years this conversation provides a living for me.


wisestories.com

Thank You

When I was 7 Years old, myself and my younger sister were sexually abused by our older brother, it was a grim secret we shared together but was left untold, I recently told my mum what happened 13 Years later and she burst into tears, she kept saying how sorry she was that she couldn’t protect us from what was completely unknown to her.
When I was 9 Years old, my dad killed himself over some stupid 18 year old girl who he had fallen in love with while he was married to my mum, my mum always knew of the affair and she even let us visit the girl but after a few months of there affair, my dad begun to become obsessive of the girl, she eventually left him while he was taking my eldest brother back home,  My dad become very depressed and tried many times to kill himself, One time when he took us to the beach he told me that he wasn’t going to be around much longer but as I was only 9 years old I didn’t understand what he meant, all I cared about was that He was my dad and that he would always be there.  Through primary school I was always bullied as “The girl who had no dad”, When I started high school I became depressed and always locked myself up in my bedroom.
When I was 16 years old, I was diagnosed with Skin Cancer and within 2 weeks of finding out, I was heading to hospital for it to be removed, My mum was always at my side telling me how sorry she was and that “It’ll be okay” But I thought I was going to die, I seen no season to continue living and this was how I was going to die, I had the surgery and it was a success, I left the hospital shaken and in pain.
When I was 18 I was told I had Agoraphobia and a Social Phobia after all my years of being bullied and alone, All through school the teachers called me “Troubled” because that’s what all the other kids in my area were called, I missed alot of school and ended up leaving just before I turned 16, I felt like it was somewhere I didn’t belong but now I realize I had the Phobias ever since my dad died and it was unknown, It was 9 years before I finally was told I was mentally ill, I was realived to finally be getting help after so long of having this big heavy load on me, it was lifted but it wasn’t easy to change how my mind thought, A lot of people gave up on trying to help me since no one understood what exactly my Agoraphobia was…

wisestories.com

Andrew Carnegie


Andrew Carnegie symbolizes all that you can call success.
He is said to be the second richest man in history. He built one of the largest and most powerful steel conglomerates in the world and finally sold it to donate most of the proceeds to charity.

Andrew Carnegie rose up from poverty with a fierce ambition and embodies all that a self development Guru would dream about.

Andrew Carnegie migrated to America from Scotland with his parents to escape poverty due to destruction of the crafts practiced by his parents by the Industrial Revolution. The abject poverty of his childhood created a steely resolve to overcome poverty and earn the riches that he owned later.

Starting $1.20 a week, he slowly moved up the ladder and became a private secretary of legendary Thomas A. Scott of Pennsylvania Railroad at a princely salary $ 35.

During this time Civil War had broken out. The military requirements were driving the steel Industry. Once the Civil War was over Andrew Carnegie decided to quit his work and enter the Steel Industry.

“I think Carnegie’s genius was first of all, an ability to foresee how things were going to change,” says historian John Ingram. “Once he saw that something was of potential benefit to him, he was willing to invest enormously in it.”

His move up in the industrial world is well documented. However what is not much known is his thirst for knowledge and philanthropic leanings.

“I propose to take an income no greater than $50,000 per annum! Beyond this I need ever earn, make no effort to increase my fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes! Let us cast aside business forever, except for others. Let us settle in Oxford and I shall get a thorough education, making the acquaintance of literary men. I figure that this will take three years active work. I shall pay especial attention to speaking in public. We can settle in London and I can purchase a controlling interest in some newspaper or live review and give the general management of it attention, taking part in public matters, especially those connected with education and improvement of the poorer classes. Man must have an idol and the amassing of wealth is one of the worst species of idolatry! No idol is more debasing than the worship of money! Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character. To continue much longer overwhelmed by business cares and with most of my thoughts wholly upon the way to make more money in the shortest time, must degrade me beyond hope of permanent recovery. I will resign business at thirty-five, but during these ensuing two years I wish to spend the afternoons in receiving instruction and in reading systematically!”

He sold his steel empire at the age of 64 for $ 480 million and became the richest man in the world. Thereafter he turned his attention to giving away his fortune which was one of his avowed wish mentioned in the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’. While he was highly philanthropic he detested charity. He donated most of his money to establishing libraries and institutes of higher learning.

Andrew Carnegie ardently believed in helping people to help them selves. He inspired the writing of Think and Grow Rich which remains to this day the classic of motivation and self development. It is said that hundreds of the richest and powerful men in the world have claimed to have become rich and successful after reading the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’.

http://inspirationkingdom.com