Mankind’s Greatest Asset
By Ryan Healy | January 5, 2008
From a purely physical perspective, a person’s greatest asset is not his money, nor his ability to create wealth. It is his health. For without health, money and material possessions become practically worthless. A person who has lost his or her health can attest to this.
If you zoom in a little bit and view the question from a purely financial perspective, I agree with Patrick at Cash Money Life: Your greatest asset is the ability to create wealth. I’ve written about this before. You can claw your way out of debt by reducing expenses and using what you save to pay down debt. But this is a slow method. Much faster to increase your income and use the excess to pay down debt.
I’ve often heard wealthy people say that if you took everything away from them and dropped them on a street corner anywhere in America, they would earn it all back within a few years.
Let me pose a question. If you strip away everything a person has… all his material possessions… and every last cent he has… what is left of value?
Naturally, the life of the person is priceless. But the things he has that can be priced are mostly intangible. They are his knowledge, skills, and raw effort. With these, he can get back to whatever level of material abundance he left off at. In fact, he can surpass everything he has ever achieved. If you study wealthy people, you will discover that most of them have at some point lost everything.
But now that we’ve zoomed in, let us zoom out. What could possibly be more important than health or the ability to create wealth? I would argue that our greatest asset is our connection with God. For we will all die. He sustains us daily until that day. God is the giver of life. And we owe all that we are to Him.
Take away my health. Take away my wealth. But don’t take away my connection with God.
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Topics: Making Money, Mindset |
5 Responses to “Mankind’s Greatest Asset”
Comments
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January 5th, 2008 at 10:44 am
I agree with everything 100%. God and health are always more important than money. My article was intended to be read from a financial perspective only because that’s what I usually write about.
January 5th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I also agree 100%! Thanks for the reminder!
January 5th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I agree 100%, because they can’t take my life experience away from me. I know what has worked and not worked up to this point, and it’s not going to change (much)! Great posting.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:15 am
Great way to look at man’s assets from many different levels. I think at times we tend to focus on wealth building without remembering that there are other parts of our lives that are more important.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:53 am
@Patrick - I figured that was the case… you were my inspiration to look at the question from multiple levels. So thank you. By the way, I just named my third child Patrick this past November. Good name!
@Lynnae - You’re welcome!
@Brooke - Thank you for the compliment.
@lovinlife - Thank you. Yes, it’s easy to get myopic when we’re thinking about money all the time. It helps to stop and reflect on what really matters.