Filthy Rich

Yahoo Finance (I guess channeling TheStreet.com) has an odd story up this week headed “Ten Traits that Make You Filthy-Rich” (link). Why odd? Well, bear with me while I scan the list: Patience … Organization … Discipline … Reflectiveness …Curiosity. You get the drift: Most (maybe not quite all?) of these qualities are qualities you’d identify as part of any mature, fulfilled and fulfilling life.

But here, at least, it seems they are defined not generally, but rather in terms of their utility in developing wealth. Patience, for example,: we are told it is “one of the most important traits when it comes to saving money.” Well, yes, but it’s also pretty helpful when you are frescoing the ceiling of a chapel. So also “reflectiveness”—“it's important to be able to look at your financial decisions and reflect on their results.” Yes, and as Socrates says, the unexamined checkbook is not worth opening.

There are a couple of traits on the list that may not present themselves as quite so universally useful. “Goal oriented,” for example. If I want to capture the world market for silk purses made out of sow’s ears, then I suspect I do have to be goal oriented. On the other hand, I suspect there are a fair number of patient, reflective, curious—even disciplined and organized—people—who really do not give a rat’s patootie about achieving some goal and are pretty much content to take life as it comes. So also “Risk taking.” I suppose anyone ought to be able to cope with risk. I would assume that entrepreneurs do need to be specially equipped to step into tense situations. OTOH, so did Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man, and he sure didn’t look rich to me.

I’m also intrigued at what is not on the list. Kindness, for example. Compassion. Of course, the author never said these weren’t good human qualities: he just didn’t think of them as among those you need to get filthy rich.

And that, perhaps, is my point. I suspect that anybody who measures up to this list is unlikely to be getting his food out of a dumpster. But rich? (And BTW, how rich is filthy rich? Better than pig rich? Worse than rich as God?) I’m not so sure. I suspect there is one quality more than any other that determines whether you will be filthy-pig rich or not. That is: you’ve got to want to be rich. If you do, I suspect a lot else will fall into place. But then, this is an outlet pre-screened for people who care about wealth…

Fn.: Be interesting to cross check this list against the “Twelve Points” of Boy Scout Law (Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent, etc.) (link). Evidently, whatever the Scouts want out of you, they aren’t particularly interested in making you filthy rich.