Did Money Make Me Happy?

I spent most of my 20’s broke. Working odd jobs and side hustles to make ends meet. Until in my mid 20’s I focused on freelancing. This allowed me to travel the world, retire my mom, and live the lifestyle I’ve documented on social media daily for years.

So did money make me happy?

I’m going to tell you the truth.

About 3 or years 4 ago, I used to think in my mind, “Man, once I figure out how to actually make money, then I could start traveling and I’ll finally be happy.” But then, once I actually started making money, I realized something. It wasn’t until I made more in a month than I had in an entire year that this light bulb moment went off.

As I say on Twitter, I wake up now I realized I understood this and prospered.

One of the most important things I realized about money is that money is an amplifier. So, if you’re already a depressed person and you get money, you’re going to be more depressed. Yes, you’ll have moments of happiness too. And if you are a person that’s happy or giving and you get money, of course, it’s gonna amplify that. But even once you have achieved money and you can buy a nice car, fly business or first class, go out to nice restaurants, retire your parents, or make sure your girl never has to worry about a job again. You can do all these things that just a couple of years ago you could never even think about doing. You also realize something else, you realize that while yes money is great, you also need to have all the other boxes in your life checked.

The relationships with other people are important, like if you finally make money, but you suck at being able to network, and you suck at just building and nurturing the relationships you have, whether it’s with your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, or your family and your friends, just because you get money doesn’t mean that all those problems are going to go away

As I’ve already said, money only amplifies

If you already don’t understand how to build and nurture relationships, you’re going to start buying friends. Meaning, everybody’s going to want to hang out with you, but it’s because you pay for everything or you’re taking them on all these fancy travels. And that’s not a real relationship.

So, take advantage of this time right now before you start making some serious money to nurture the relationships with other people in your life currently. Get good at networking, start building those social skills that you’re going to need once you start making some money.

I mean, you’re reading this blog, so at some point, once you start taking this thing seriously, the money thing is going to solve itself. But for now, you need to start working on your relationships. And just because you have money doesn’t mean that magically you’re going to understand nutrition or understand how to get to the gym.

Learn from others and take advantage of this time to

• Start hitting the gym
• Start eating the right food
• Take control of your health

Once I started actually making some good money, I had no idea about what I actually wanted anymore. I’d forgotten about that. I was so focused on fulfilling clients, just living the day-to-day life that I’d forgotten what I actually want. So, you also need to get clear on what it is that you want because once you start making money, well, it’s easy to distract yourself with “shiny objects”, so, you need to know who you are as an individual. You have to get very clear on your inner self-talk. You need to get very clear on your vision and your mission for life because it’s easy to kind of forget about that stuff once you start making money

So to answer your question, did money make me happy?

The answer is no. All it did was amplify all the other areas of my life that I was already working on, just making them far better.

Leave a comment with any question or suggestion you want to see in the next video.

Always the best

Dylan Madden.