Lifestyle

Mo' Money Mo' First World Problems

by Edward Mullen
Stocksy

Recently, Elite published an article about an annoying rich kid who may be the douchiest person on the internet. He is known for posting ostentatious pictures of his wealth on Instagram, such as exotic cars and stacks of cash. He even posted an unintelligent rant about Kim Kardashian, claiming that she was a peasant and cheap.

In terms of first world problems, the handicap of wealth has to be among the best problems to have. The idea is that your wealth can put a tremendous hindrance on your life by limiting your social and personal development. Since money solves many of your problems and makes life easy, you miss out on the developmental lessons such as work ethic, ambition, discipline and even compassion.

Raising ‘good’ kids into wealth can’t be easy. We all want the best for our kids and provide them with abundant opportunity, but when does it become a point of diminishing returns? At what point do we provide for our kids and make sure they develop the proper character without becoming douches?

I’m not rich yet, nor do I have kids, but I worry about this. Suppose you live in a big house, drive an expensive car, have millions of dollars in your bank account and your kid wants a new pair of shoes. What’s the play? Do you tell him "we can’t afford it," tell him to get a job, or reward him only after he gets an ‘A’ on his report card?

After giving it some thought, I think the best way to counteract the handicap of wealth is to make them work for things they receive. This will teach them the value of money, hard work and discipline, as well as setting and achieving goals.

The second thing I would do is enroll them in some kind of sport. Sports have a way of humbling a person because they require hard work, dedication and team work. To develop character, we have to go through trying ordeals. We must face competition and failure and then find a way to persevere. We have to learn how to deal with losing, not having everything go right and accomplishing a difficult task on our own merit.

Sports are great because success and accomplishment have very clearly defined goals, such as winning games and championships. However, being socially successful is much more difficult to determine since there is such a grey area. It is possible to go your entire life without having character and not even knowing it.

So avoiding the handicap of wealth comes down to the same strategy that works for everyone else: be honest with your personal assessment, work hard and set clearly defined goals so you can recognize your accomplishments.

Edward Mullen | Elite. Edward Mullen is the author of “The Art of the Hustle” and “Destiny & Free Will.” Follow him on Twitter @writermullen.