{"id":38781,"date":"2024-12-10T02:58:40","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T02:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=38781"},"modified":"2024-12-10T02:58:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T02:58:41","slug":"how-wealthy-do-you-want-to-be-insights-from-whole-foods-founder-john-mackey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=38781","title":{"rendered":"How Wealthy Do You Want To Be? Insights From Whole Foods Founder, John Mackey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a recent interview with Shane Parrish, Whole Foods founder John Mackey talked a lot about wealth\u2014what it means to him and what it doesn\u2019t. He told a particularly compelling story about what he didn\u2019t want wealth to look like for him.<\/p>\n

He was going to meet with Jeff Bezos to discuss Amazon buying Whole Foods\u2014you know, as one does\u2014and the exact location of their meeting, Bezos\u2019 boat house adjacent to his Lake Washington mansion, remained obscured until Mackey\u2019s plane landed. Then, Mackey and his car were searched prior to entering, and after all the impersonal fanfare, he was left to conclude:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never want to be so rich and so famous and so powerful that I couldn\u2019t live a normal life.\u201d He acknowledged, \u201cI\u2019m sure Jeff is one of the most envied people in the world, but I would not want to have to live my life like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, I know you might be thinking, \u201cPlease, not another super wealthy person telling me how I should and shouldn\u2019t think about money and wealth when they don\u2019t have a material concern in the world!\u201d And I get that. Yet, who better to teach us about the upside and downside of super success than those who\u2019ve experienced it\u2014or some version of it?<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

So, how wealthy do you want to be? Seriously. You already know that with more success\u2014and more stuff\u2014comes more scrutiny and responsibility, so what is it worth to you?<\/p>\n

Personally, Mackey concludes that \u201ca little bit of fame, a little bit of wealth, a little bit of power\u2014to a certain point\u2014is gratifying to the soul, but past that point, you get diminishing returns. It\u2019s no longer bringing you any kind of happiness. It\u2019s now a burden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where do you draw the line between wealth as a blessing or a burden?<\/p>\n

For eons, we\u2019ve generally agreed that money can\u2019t buy happiness\u2014while quietly acting to the contrary. For years, we\u2019ve pointed to at least one study that suggested money may<\/em> buy happiness up to the point of comfortable sustenance, but not beyond. The most recent studies suggest a more nuanced and resonant truth\u2014that more money can provide additional doses of happiness, but to degrees that are proportionately less relative to the more you already have.<\/p>\n

But the real key here isn\u2019t about the money itself, it seems; it\u2019s about the meaning behind the money. For example, a 10% raise to someone with $500,000 of income may actually give that individual a similar boost in happiness as the person with $100,000 of income\u2014at least momentarily\u2014but it\u2019s because of what that raise means more than the raise itself. Here\u2019s how Harvard social scientist and author, Arthur Brooks, puts it:<\/p>\n

\u201cNonpartisan social-survey data clearly show that the big driver of happiness is earned success: a person\u2019s belief that he has created value in his life or the life of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earned success<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The fact that we did something of meaning.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s because of meaning that money matters.<\/p>\n

And here, John Mackey has, indeed, put his money where his mouth is. He dropped his salary to $1 in 2006, and he also opted to forgo additional cash compensation, donated future stock options to foundations, and established an emergency fund for employees, coining a new phrase and philosophy, \u201cconscious capitalism.\u201d He offered the following explanation:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am now 53 years old and I have reached a place in my life where I no longer want to work for money, but simply for the joy of the work itself and to better answer the call to service that I feel so clearly in my own heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s John Mackey\u2019s wealth story. That\u2019s his why, his meaning. His philosophy regarding money and wealth.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s yours?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent interview with Shane Parrish, Whole Foods founder John Mackey talked a lot about wealth\u2014what it means to him and what it doesn\u2019t. He told a particularly compelling story about what he didn\u2019t want wealth to look like for him. He was going to meet with Jeff Bezos to discuss Amazon buying Whole<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-retirement"},"yoast_head":"\nHow Wealthy Do You Want To Be? Insights From Whole Foods Founder, John Mackey | iSafeSpend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent interview with Shane Parrish, Whole Foods founder John Mackey talked a lot about wealth\u2014what it means to him and what it doesn\u2019t. 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