What is wealth?

The richest person I know works at a mental health charity. She's worked there for years. See has an average salary in monetary terms. She's worked at the same organisation for a decade or two. She has enough for herself and she has a job which she enjoys doing. She doesn't have responsibility but for her own work. She never became a manager or plodded up the hierachy. She knows a lot of stuff and perhaps that's her wealth. Or perhaps her wealth is the wisdom not to pursue wealth.

I once pondered the question of what millionaires do after they've got a million pounds? I think they probably want to become billionaires. They see the value of their life as the numbers they have in the bank. They are smart too and work hard, but their poverty is lacking what my old colleagues had.

I'm thinking about this question because I need to get back to work. I mean paid, office work. I think my perfect job was what I used to do a couple of years ago. The money isn't important. The company's mission is.

But that means I need to go work in an investment bank. This may not make sense. City investment traders and entrepreneurs are some of the poorest people in the world. They believe money and comfort is true wealth.

I need to think about this more. I would trade what I love and what I want to do something I believe in. This is truly dumb.

I guess learning the lesson that the secret to being happy is realising you don't have to be happy is dumb. But I would sacrifice for the lives of the poorest and worst off in the world.