Increasingly people think I’m rich so this is in a series of articles that I’ve drafted to break down my concept of value and wealth to open up a path of discovering what real "rich"ness really is. Even though I am not rich financially (though people think I am), I’ve talked to many who wonder just how I am able to make the moves I do.

Let’s get started…

Encountering Money

The first time I encountered a significant amount of money was when I was 16 and even though I was making far more money than anybody around me I still felt, “stuck”. I realized then that with more money comes more responsibility and not necessarily anything to do with freedom.

Just a few days ago I had a three-hour long call with a guy who had made $325k in three months. But, he felt terrible in the middle of it from the physical stress and pressure and that was not what he could or wanted to do long term.

Depending on what kind of system you set in place to make money the results of your hard work can result in less happiness and freedom.

Abandoned Money for Wisdom

If I would have stuck with the first business I created I may have had much more money than I do now, but I wouldn’t have had near the skills, knowledge and wisdom that I’ve accrued over choosing this route.

Crafting Your Career or Business Around Value

When crafting a business or a career you really have to think about the entire picture throughout a lifetime. The goal in life shouldn’t be net money earned because if you live for money you can easily end up building systems that can enslave you instead of set you free.

Delivering Value for the Benefit of Humanity

Ultimately my suggestion through this article is to build your career or business in a way that gives others back more than it gives you. People say if you charge $1 at the door and deliver $10 of value you will be rich. I would go further and ask the following:

• Do you actually like giving the $10?
• Do the people working for you enjoy working towards giving that $10 of value?
• Is the $10 going to affect society in a good way?

In business, it is an exchange of value and I think developing businesses and careers around the concept of putting value on the table really opens up your options as a human being.

My goal is to be incredibly idealistic while simultaneously succeeding (my terms of success are different from most, will explain in another article). I believe I’ve done this on many levels with MJG International and the feedback from the conference we put on at Google HQ, Day of JavaScript on Mobile was indication that you can do amazing things for people while not requiring an entry fee. The conference was wildly successful in all ways I measured the success which didn’t include dollars.

Idealistic Thinking

Build a business or career in terms of how much value you can create not just financially but also use other metrics important to you like knowledge, happiness and progression. This change will really open up a new light into the way you approach your career.

If you approach every new situation in terms of what can you add instead of what you can subtract I guarantee that you will find out that you receive much more rewards throughout the entire life-cycle of your career.