Bitcoin Forum

What a douche bag.

He's right, you have to believe in yourself and only let positive influences hold control over your life.  You must act with your conscience, not your ego.

Why is this man a douche? What is wrong with limiting your obligations until you can easily meet them?

Found the accounts owner. Yeah, then leave it on a receipt and tell everyone how they screwed up their life by having kids, friends or a life before working toward building up a fat bank account because thats all that really matters.

http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/user_photos/1280608/3b2da66677928403e448c909d662bcdb_rectangle_fullsize.jpg

How can you meet the needs of the many if you're broke and barely producing?

By focusing on what matters to you, not taking advice from people who are detached from reality.

Isn't that exactly what the note says?

Yes, I am trying to simplify it into a more pure douchey explanation.

Then, care to answer the question?

That is kinda broad. Just because you are not rich does not make you broke or barely producing. But my answer would be, raise your kids to be good people and it should all work out in the end. I have 3 kids and I hate money, and we are happy and keep a roof over our heads, and feed and clothe ourselves. My wife does not work, this is a single income home, you don't have to kill both parents to bring your kids up so they can all have some status symbol they think they need (iPhone, cool shoes, etc). Once 1 generation of kids is raised to have a good moral set of values, they wont all (not to say some wont but we are talking about the needs of the many here) grow up to be money hungry dicks that think just because you are not rich, well you must be a lazy piece of crap who never put out enough effort to get rich like them.

TL;DR: Don't let your kids to grow up to be assholes.

My girlfriend has studied psychology and this way helps young people with difficult background (violation, drugs, ...) to find their way back to life. She focuses very hard on this tasks, but she cannot get rich this way, although I think it's very important. Instead her real income decreases every year.

Most people have no chance to get rich, mostly the honest ones. It's a bad time.

With the exception of the ones with mental issues, most people do have a chance to become rich. But they would have to work hard and smart on their dream.

One person could take the pet rock idea and market it in a way that has never been done before. Another person could start an automobile plant completely different than the way it's been done. The later should sound familiar.

~Bruno~

Well said.

So many people spend their lives chasing money, more fool them.

As for that note, lol.

Are you dreaming? Work as hard as Paris?

Working hard means working hard for the rich, not for yourself, these times.

en·tre·pre·neur
noun
1. a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

The bank account balance is freedom? Yes, freedom for the bank to take all your money and lose it.

Yes, we need them, because they mostly take too much risk, and after their collapse accountants, advocates, and perhaps medicals have a lot of new work to do.

I remind that a few decades before the boss of a company could become rich and end in the gutter after serious mistakes. And Today? Be a greasy guy gambling with other peoples money (John Paulson for example), and vanish with a big bonus after the crash. Let the crooks run (Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, for example) after making arrangements, that the normal people have to pay.

Enough for me with neo-liberalism.

One mans freedom is another mans slavery. The receipt shows the selfishness and the egocentricity of the owner.

If money is slavery, the solution if to transfer the money to me. I'll gladly take it.

My, but you are jaded, aren't you? I speak of the small business owner, as well as the industrialist. Sam Walton, Dave Thomas, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, all these men started out small. Apple, for instance, started out in a garage.

Get excited and make stuff. That's how you beat the banksters.

You could own all money, if you are ethic and fair-minded.

The questions for me are: Which way do you earn your money, and with way do you spend it. It tells a lot (if not all) about the owner.

Nice stories, but do you know them in full length? And are they really true, in the "garage"? Sounds nice, go and try also.

That's not possible, I'm earning my money with confidence. I'm one of the rare people who found Bitcoins to spread my investments. But how to explain it to people without technological background?

Who cares about non-technical people? And what makes you think I was specifically speaking about Bitcoin entrepreneurship? Find something awesome. Make it happen. Kickstarter. Makerbot. Makerspaces. Now is the age of the mini-industrialist. The (very real) problems you identified earlier are soon to be a thing of the past.

Email is just as technical as bitcoin, if not more so, but people use it all around the world.

If I had a bank account with $12.5 million in cash I would feel free also. It's not unfounded. Money =  more choices. Choices = freedom.

The bank account balance is an illusion due to fractional reserve banking. The balance is a liability on the bank's balance sheet but it is not backed up fully by reserves but illiquid loan asests. We all try to take our money out at once and learn that it is not there.

I'd never store so much money in a bank, even if it was a tiny fraction of my total wealth. I'd keep my money in a format that is not backed by debt which is owned by someone else.

$12 million in a bank account? Hmm, one would have to be filthy filthy rich to justify that. Anything more than half a million at the most should be invested.

Because that was only the secret to his happiness.

Now, if only we can encourage kids to be more desensitized to everything and distracted from anything semi-important and pay attention to acquiring money as their only goal. If only there was some music that preached the same thing as that guys receipt.

http://rumplo.s3.amazonaws.com/images/tees/0001/7078/17078-0.jpg

Then the coming generations will be perfectly happy people.

They key to happiness is not really trying too hard in the first place..

HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAH

That is NOT freedom. I'll tell you from experience money is NOT freedom in the slightest. It controls you, not the other way around.

Who told him this lie? And why did he believe it?

Once you have money it looses it's sparkle, don't it.

Remember when you wanted that toy as a kid when you finally got it, it was cool for a few days/weeks then got bored of it?

Money just sparks more stupid greed. Human are never satisfied.

A lot of research has shown that below a certain line of income money buys a lot of happiness. It's the same happiness that's experienced when a smoker staves off withdrawal symptoms by toking another cigarette, or a coffee drinker by drinking another cup. On the other end of the scale, beyond a certain point, more money buys less and less happiness, as it starts bringing its own problems (fear of loss, etc). Google is bursting with articles on this topic.

Admittedly the guy said his secret to happiness was freedom, and money buys it for him, so I guess one couldn't be too hard on him. I think most people would be made happy by the prospect of freedom, but imo it's overcoming the challenge that matters more. Perhaps that money was fairly newly acquired for him, or it was incredibly difficult for him to attain.

http://www.daftblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/tyler_durden_airplane-scene.png
Money and material possessions isn't the root of happiness.

Seriously love your title.

This guy is right about a few things.

I'm amazed he keeps that much money in cash though.  You need to seriously trust the USD to do that.

Does happiness exist, anyway?   I mean, I know some people experience it.  Good to them.  But is it really reasonable to seek for that in your life?  Can't there be more "modest" goals?   Achievement, for instance?  Peace of mind?  Or just curiosity about what this amazingly changing world will be in thirty years?

I don't remember having experienced anything that looked like happiness.  I can't say I had a miserable life, it was just "ok", I guess.

Do you really need to be happy to make your life worthwhile?

"Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

The satisfaction of a job well done, the thrill of discovery at "living in the future," the sense of peace while gazing at a zen garden, all are forms of happiness. If you consider your life worthwhile, you are happy. Simply because you have not experienced transcendental joy does not mean you have never experienced happiness.

I very much doubt this is happiness.  When I talked about it, I did not mean "transcendental joy".  I meant happiness as what I can imagine it is through its description in standard cultural stereoptypes (familly, fullfilling job, love and stuff like that).

I know what satisfaction, tranquility and thrill are.  But I would not call that happiness.   Maybe happiness is what describes what we feel when we have it all.   Then I doubt it is reasonable to hope for that.

IIRC, bouddhists believe in something they call renouncement.  I'm pretty sure that's why they don't call their ultimate goal "happiness".  It's just much more complicated than that.

Let me repeat, then, since you seem to have missed it:

If you consider your life worthwhile, you are happy.

Well, I disagree.

I'm not a native english speaker though, so I'm not in best position to talk about word definition.  Still, I do right now consider my life worthwhile, and yet I would not say I am happy in the sense this millionaire guy we're talking about in this thread is, for instance.

Let me guess, you're German, right? They are never happy unless they're convinced they're unhappy. ;)

I'd define happiness as the state of having achieved (at least some of) your life's goals. Clearly Mr. Millionaire here sees the path to his life's goals through a large bank account. You may have a different path. That doesn't make your happiness less, it's just a different means to the same end.

This only proves he has 12 million dollars, if the receipt is legit that is. It doesnt prove he is happy or successful or anything else. Oh yeah also proves he knows how to spell and can write in English and has access to a ball point pen.. So why is he giving a load of advice? How does his advice apply to anyone else? We all have different circumstances and preferences right? Maybe he was bored.

They were a smart bunch...even they realized happiness could never actually be attained...

Challenge accepted.

It can.  It's just that it mostly doesn't depend on you.

That being said, not being happy does not necessarily mean being miserable.


IMHO

I think many of you have missed the point. This guy understood that money bought freedom. For all we know he could be dedicating the rest of his life to charity now, and he's likely doing better at it with $12 million than with $12,000. I've kind of taken a similar approach and wondered if I should focus more on it lately as well. Build something that can sustain you and those you care about, and then take care of them. Some of the most effective charities are primarily funded by people that have taken this approach, Gates, Buffet, and the Waltons. They built, built, built, and now they are spending the vast majority of their lives and fortunes on charity.

Someday maybe the likes of us will join them.

The entire point of human existence is relationships. Money is one way to enable that... this is what people who are honest with themselves understand.

This. I looked at that statement and my first thought was "That's not freedom... That's just an incredibly bad investment"

Well, maybe he has a few hundred millions invested already, besides of these 12 millions.

J.K. Schmidt (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78149.msg869555#msg869555) makes a good point. Money IS happiness! :)

Why keep that much in one bank if the FDIC doesn't insure that much?

friendly bump I really like what the OP shows

Money absolutely DOES buy happiness - it's just not generally happiness that lasts.  My car makes me happy every time I drive it though, so sometimes it does last for a long time.  :)

Generally, happiness can be better achieved by not aiming high (i.e., aiming to acquire more money or things than they can feasibly achieve within a given time period).  Or, to put it another way, learning to be satisfied with what you have and what you are capable of having without having to take out a loan to get it.

I dislike it when people just flat out state that "money doesn't buy happiness", because it simply isn't true (at least for most people).  Most people would be happier if their house was paid for, and they didn't have to work a day longer in their life, but instead could focus on what they love to do.  Most people would be happier if they could afford to take their date out to a nice restaurant more than once a month.  Most people would be happier if they had a newer car, catered to their desires, instead of an 80's POS that makes them wonder if they'll be able to make it to work.  Etc, etc, etc.

When people try to buy happiness without having the money to do so is when it goes downhill fast.  Taking out loans to buy things, specifically.  Now there's a bad feedback loop to get stuck in!

Anyway, just my two bitcents.