Is there a philosophical bases for finacial success?

[mwic]

Just thought I’d tell a quick lottery story:

Last year, I got this random urge to buy a ticket. It was a record-high payout or something… so I bought my first lottery ticket ever. It was so random that I started thinking “Maybe it’s meant to be etc. etc.” and – like one always does – fantasized about what I’d do with the money.

Of course, my ticket did not match the numbers they drew. But I realized, thinking it over, that I did win the lottery. I won it in 1974, when I was born in a (relatively) free country – the wealthiest in human history, to two Caucasian parents who cared for their children.

What are the odds?

 

[Aloysium]

If there is a philosophical basis for financial success, there are many examples of folks who do not fit any mold.
My vote is you start up a cult and get a following. Your personal residence will be tax free and you can get many other benefits.
Religion is and always will be a money maker for those that use it to their financial advantage at the cost of many unsuspecting taxpayers. Even though this is just now starting to change, in this economy I still think it has more growth potential than in any other area.

You will never be rich my friend.
I do know a lot of people with money. I knew a priest who came from money so he inherited lots. Most religious people I know aren’t up there in the financial ranks.
If you want to make money, it is important to have some smarts, but more importantly, you have to think about it all the time.
I went with some friends to a neighbour’s country home, which was surrounded by land belonging to native people and was in fairly pritine condition. By the end of the drive they had it all sorted out how to finance, develop and promote the property. They did not follow through, but that was not the point of the exercise, which is to spot and jump on opportunities as they arise. It is important to have money to do so, as money makes money - forget the philosophy.

 

[wmw]

The idea that because in some cases people in business choose to be independent from the community and that therefore there is something wrong with seeking out legitimate means and philosophies in the pursuit of financial success does not make any sense to me. You seem to be making allot of bad assumptions about this thread and its intentions.
Would you prefer to have nothing than have a successful business? I don’t see the good in discouraging people from seeking financial success, because at the end of the day they are the reason that people have jobs.

I don’t understand why you have assumed that just because i choose to seekout material freedom, that therefore I am abandoning spiritual freedom. The two needn’t be in conflict.

I do not say that ALL seeking of financial success is a search for an escape from community, but when someone puts out such a goal as “freedom” it appears that you are falling into a misconception common in our very materialistic world and this wall of separation between what I do to earn a living and “being spiritual”.

I don’t assume that you have fallen into this, but just offer a warning that this is “often” the error made. There are many such false paths and enumerating them would be just another false path of a waste of time. So, I quickly turn to talking about the right path of being a holy follower of Christ and building oneself up in the virtues that are opposed to thees vices and false ways.

The virtues put in perspective what you are to be seeking, freedom is not a bad thing, much like money, it is something you should thank God for, but it is not an end in itself to be chased. Both freedom and money are tools to be utilized for building up the virtues, chiefly Love, Hope, and Faith.

Let’s put this in some context: A doctor should not go through college, medical school, residency etc. just with the idea that this is the way to gain the money of a well paid career. One should seek a calling to your life’s work to be a doctor that treats the ill and heals the injured. I don’t want a doctor that is just about himself and how much wealth he is stashing away. The same is true about all work, businesses, investments, even tax collecting.

Seek the real virtues and the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto you. Your cup will overflow, but likely not as the multi-millionare stereotype, but in ways better than you ever imagined.