F*ck You Money - Boon or Bane?

Proverb

When I first read that, I was taken a back. Such a simple statement, but profound. If you think about it - so many of us have jobs, we need to survive and even thrive. I get it.

But you also notice that most of our opinions are really not our own, not what we truly mean. Which is why we speak “politically correct”. If we could inject ourselves with truth serum, then you’d hear some of the most craziest things that are going on in our mind. But is honesty, the best policy?

At times, we try to flatter, butter, grease the favor of the hand that feeds us. (Ok, that was a bit too dramatic, but I’ve seen more than my fair share of this in corporates). Sometimes, we’re the one on the receiving end - if you are, you should look at yourself in the mirror and stay away from yes men.

At other times, we even let wrong happen, and we keep silent about it. We let injustice happen, and we keep quiet about it - because it’s not done to us. And even it was, we’d keep silent because we’d rather sing the wrong song. We don’t even give credit, where credit is really due.

If you’re fortunate to be in a position, where you don’t care about what others think, where you have enough f*ck you money, you can just move on without having to worry about a salary to support yourself and your family - then that’s really a great position to be in.

And with great freedom, comes great responsibility. You’re also in a position to dig in harder and make a difference, to challenge the status quo for the better, and create an innovative organization.

But let’s not stop there, I strongly believe that even if you have f*ck you money - you should work, work because you’re doing stuff with meaning, not because someone told you or because you eat his/her/its bread or you want want to please someone. But because you can do the right things, without fear of being fired or let go.

So many people hate their jobs, yet they can’t or won’t do anything about it. So they sing the song. They know its wrong, they have this intuition but just sing louder, so they can drown that voice out.

P.S. I’m a capitalist - but I’m hearing more and more capitalists talking about Universal Basic Income. And to me, that’s an interesting economics experiment but there’s more to it than meets the eye. Are we becoming socialist or is this truly a revolutionary experiment.