James Altucher wrote a post called “The Secret of Billions” last week and I read it on Medium yesterday. I think you should read it too, it’s long and it’s excellent and it talks about the show in the title and gives plenty of insight into Wall St and its inhabitants, too.
But the part of the Altucher post I want to highlight is this, at the end. It starts with the title line above as its header and it got me to see that my idea of F-You money is really low. Have a read.
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“Of
course on Showtime the word is spelled out. Bobby says this line to
Chuck Rhodes (Paul Giamatti) in the one heated confrontation they have
during the pilot.The line is excellent and Damien Lewis delivers it with ruthlessness.But I always think the reverse.When
you have a job, people often daydream about saying that to their boss
or colleagues or whoever. But I always felt, “When I get F you money,
the last thing I want to do is come back here and talk to my boss, even
if it is just to curse at him.” What’s the point?This begs the question, why do billionaires even keep going after they get their F you money?I
guess it’s because they are so driven that that is how they got the F
you money in the first place. So that same force that drove them
initially is still driving them.And then there’s the question — how much is F You money?In
the show, at the end, Bobby buys a house for $63 million. But clearly
you don’t need a house that big to be happy. Many people have much
smaller houses and are happy with their lives.I tried thinking of an answer.For
instance, one answer is: you have F you money if from morning to night
you only have to do the things you love doing and you don’t have to do
anything else.But
what if what you love doing is building and flying rocketships to the
Moon. That’s pretty expensive. Your number is going to be a very big
number.I
don’t know the answer. I like to sit at home and read and write all day.
And not ever feel so angry I feel the need to say “F You!” to anyone
since that is a stress and stress will make you sick.For
me, “F You money” simply means I get to keep physically healthy, spend
time with friends (emotional health), be creative (mental health), and
be grateful (spiritual health) every single day, without anyone or
anything getting in the way of that.Life
throws us difficulties and stresses every day, no matter what. And you
can see that the characters in the show are setting themselves up for
potentially many, many episodes of stress, no matter how rich they are,
no matter how powerful.At
the end of all shows and stories, everyone eventually dies and their
stories are eventually forgotten, like a lingering pain that eventually
subsides and disappears.What’s the point of having F You money if eventually everyone dies?Please tell me the answer when you get there.”