Purpose or Profit

According to an article I came across on a reputable career-oriented website, new research shows that “having a purpose in life” significantly improves your chance of making a lot of money.

Okay, I can understand that.  People with a sense of purpose tend to achieve what they set out to achieve.  Why wouldn’t that tend to be true in the realm of finance as much as in other aspects of life?  Good so far.  

The article goes on to make some good points about why you’ll live a happier, more productive life if you have some goal or objective that motivates you.  

But then it gets weird.  The author seems to feel a need to justify why we should strive for a happier, more productive life.  Isn’t it obvious that ‘happy’ and ‘productive’ are worthwhile in and of themselves?  Isn’t it self-evident that having something to live for is a positive and life-enhancing condition? 

Apparently not.  In order to persuade us that having a meaningful life is a good thing, the author writes, “finding meaning in your life… leads to happier and more productive workers and more money. This is an equation we can all get behind.”

Oh, now we understand.  Now we can ‘get behind’ the purpose-driven life.  Now we can justify the purpose-driven life in financial terms.  Now we know having a purpose makes us a profit.  Now we can justify having a purpose in life because it increases our income. 

The twist from meaning to money leaves me dizzy.  I always thought people with ‘a sense of purpose’ tend to find happiness in something more ethically satisfying than a fat bank account.  I guess I was naïve. 

All sarcasm aside, I wonder if the author is actually aware of the unspoken axiom underlying her article:  The only higher purpose that is truly worthwhile is to accumulate as much money as possible.

Such a sad and ultimately dysfunctional approach to life.  Futile.  Utterly and ironically without meaning or purpose.  

Well, I wish success to my friends who find their meaning in wealth.  I am not optimistic, though.  Research notwithstanding, I predict that anyone who goes seeking purpose in life with the ultimate goal of making a lot of money will fail to achieve one of those objectives or the other. 

Gryphem