Becoming a millionaire is not the aim of my life because people on their deathbed do not say, “I regret that I did not become a millionaire.”
Dying people often say something like this: “I regret that I spent so much time and devoted so much energy on worthless things.” Last time I asked myself which option I would choose if I would be mortally ill and would have died within the next six months:
- receiving two additional years of life;
- receiving ten million dollars (with the restriction that this money cannot be transferred to my family, friends, and society).
For me, the answer is obvious. I wrote it once, and I will write it for a second time. Money is nothing comparing to a time. People tend to forget that they have a limited time to live. Thus, for me, becoming a millionaire is not the aim of my life. It is evident that I would like to possess as much money as possible, no doubt. But, I do not want to have a life focused only on earning money. There are a lot of great examples of people (e.g., artists) who still live forever in people’s memories, minds, and souls. Why? Because they devoted their lives to something essential to them.
By creating art, they wanted to inspire other people, force them to think, to contemplate life and death issues.
Of course, a lot of artists were simultaneously wealthy people (like Salvador Dali), but some were not wealthy (e.g., Vincent van Gogh or Johannes Vermeer). All of them left for a posterity a lot of works of art, which are still being analyzed, viewed, and admired by others. They brought an added value to others. That’s why becoming a millionaire is not the aim of my life. I do not want to waste my time on it. What I want to do is to try to inspire other people, by creating new photographs, texts and “Diaries.”
