I am sure you will find the heading of this post very weird as we have been doctrinated from our childhood by our parents, our colleagues or may be the bollywood films which we watch that "Money can never buy happiness".
If you go with the advertisement for Mastercard, it says "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard." In the ad you can see a son taking his parents to disneyland, everywhere he goes he swipes the mastercard and pays money. And then his parents take a ride in the roller coaster and find it amazing enough to get overjoyed. And then the voice in the background conveys the message that for everything else apart from happiness (joy on the face of the parents) there is Mastercard. But ultimately you can observe that happiness came from the rollercoaster ride, which was a paid ride, well swiped by the esteemed son of old parents. So, can we say Money bought them Happiness?? Logically "100% Yes". Let us not come to the conclusion yet, we have to put forward views from all angles.
Well, many of the people accept that "Money can never buy happiness" but deposit loads of Vitamin M in their safes. Why?? Insecurity?? Fear of Unknown Future?? If we are living for happiness, if that's what is our ultimate aim in our life, to be happy, then why Money??
Let us take help of the famous Maslow's theory of Heirarchy of Needs to explain the above case logically:-
Source:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Maslow divided human needs into physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization. He starts from the bottom of the pyramid. Maslow claims that without fulfilling the need at prior stage, human doesn't move to the next one. Eg. For feeling secure he should first get food, water and shelter. Also after feeling safe at personal level he will shift to the next level of friendship, family and love. By looking at the pyramid from bottom to top we can see how human motivation to fulfill their needs develop. The last and topmost stage is Self Actualization where Human reaches the epitome of his life i.e. "What he actually wants to be". But the transition of the "Esteem" stage to "Self-Actualization" is a very tricky process and most of the highly successful individuals fail to have this transformation in their lives. Many of them think that money can get them through this transition and achieve "Self Actualization", but they will never connect to the topmost stage of the pyramid if they think so. The dose of Vitamin M miserably fails here. And on the other side people who are more into spiritual side of life and are living a satisfied life have reached the "Self Actualisation" stage without money.
If we ever think that Money can buy Happiness, then our vision is very narrow and limited. The happiness which Money buys is temporary, not long lasting. Human being needs are unlimited, after one wish is fulfilled he desires for another. Likewise, before the celebration of happiness is completed for fulfilling one need he starts to worry about the other. And this cycle goes on and meanwhile struggling in this rat race he fails to live a beautiful contented life. Buying things because you need it and buying things because you just desire for it are two completely different equations. The latter makes you more vulnerable to miserable part of life. But still there is someone who says that "Money Can Buy Happiness" and backs it up by his meticulous study over the topic. He is Mr. Michael Norton.
Before we proceed further you must watch this video by Michael Norton http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html
Happiness is a state of mind and different people have different ideologies of Happiness. But when it comes to money all ideologies converge to a single point - Spend money on yourself and you will be happy. In the video Mr. Norton explains how to buy happiness, he says Spending money on others will make you more happy than spending on yourself. Then Mr. Norton says that "The specific way that you spend on other people isn't nearly as important as the fact that you spend on other people.” That means again the cause for which you are spending money is important, spending money on others doesnt mean you will spend it for your family or friends. Rest all the video explains well how "Money can buy Happiness". And may be this also explains the "Mastercard" story at the top.
Excess of anything is harmful, the same way excess of Money is harmful. Peace of mind is paramount to remain happy, but excess of money makes you uncomfortable, unstable and sows seeds of fear. It is very unfortunate to see that a normal human life revolves around "Money", whereas it should be enjoying itself around nature, rational thoughts, prejudice mindset and most importantly "LOVE".
If you go with the advertisement for Mastercard, it says "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard." In the ad you can see a son taking his parents to disneyland, everywhere he goes he swipes the mastercard and pays money. And then his parents take a ride in the roller coaster and find it amazing enough to get overjoyed. And then the voice in the background conveys the message that for everything else apart from happiness (joy on the face of the parents) there is Mastercard. But ultimately you can observe that happiness came from the rollercoaster ride, which was a paid ride, well swiped by the esteemed son of old parents. So, can we say Money bought them Happiness?? Logically "100% Yes". Let us not come to the conclusion yet, we have to put forward views from all angles.
Well, many of the people accept that "Money can never buy happiness" but deposit loads of Vitamin M in their safes. Why?? Insecurity?? Fear of Unknown Future?? If we are living for happiness, if that's what is our ultimate aim in our life, to be happy, then why Money??
Let us take help of the famous Maslow's theory of Heirarchy of Needs to explain the above case logically:-
Maslow divided human needs into physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualization. He starts from the bottom of the pyramid. Maslow claims that without fulfilling the need at prior stage, human doesn't move to the next one. Eg. For feeling secure he should first get food, water and shelter. Also after feeling safe at personal level he will shift to the next level of friendship, family and love. By looking at the pyramid from bottom to top we can see how human motivation to fulfill their needs develop. The last and topmost stage is Self Actualization where Human reaches the epitome of his life i.e. "What he actually wants to be". But the transition of the "Esteem" stage to "Self-Actualization" is a very tricky process and most of the highly successful individuals fail to have this transformation in their lives. Many of them think that money can get them through this transition and achieve "Self Actualization", but they will never connect to the topmost stage of the pyramid if they think so. The dose of Vitamin M miserably fails here. And on the other side people who are more into spiritual side of life and are living a satisfied life have reached the "Self Actualisation" stage without money.
If we ever think that Money can buy Happiness, then our vision is very narrow and limited. The happiness which Money buys is temporary, not long lasting. Human being needs are unlimited, after one wish is fulfilled he desires for another. Likewise, before the celebration of happiness is completed for fulfilling one need he starts to worry about the other. And this cycle goes on and meanwhile struggling in this rat race he fails to live a beautiful contented life. Buying things because you need it and buying things because you just desire for it are two completely different equations. The latter makes you more vulnerable to miserable part of life. But still there is someone who says that "Money Can Buy Happiness" and backs it up by his meticulous study over the topic. He is Mr. Michael Norton.
Before we proceed further you must watch this video by Michael Norton http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html
Happiness is a state of mind and different people have different ideologies of Happiness. But when it comes to money all ideologies converge to a single point - Spend money on yourself and you will be happy. In the video Mr. Norton explains how to buy happiness, he says Spending money on others will make you more happy than spending on yourself. Then Mr. Norton says that "The specific way that you spend on other people isn't nearly as important as the fact that you spend on other people.” That means again the cause for which you are spending money is important, spending money on others doesnt mean you will spend it for your family or friends. Rest all the video explains well how "Money can buy Happiness". And may be this also explains the "Mastercard" story at the top.
Excess of anything is harmful, the same way excess of Money is harmful. Peace of mind is paramount to remain happy, but excess of money makes you uncomfortable, unstable and sows seeds of fear. It is very unfortunate to see that a normal human life revolves around "Money", whereas it should be enjoying itself around nature, rational thoughts, prejudice mindset and most importantly "LOVE".
