What’s the point of getting rich, having all kinds of money and time if you aren’t going to live to enjoy it?
This is the question that I am posing to anyone out there with an insatiable thirst for wealth that has let their health go by the wayside on their rapid ascent to the top.
I can’t help but stand by in wild wonder at all of the financially successful people I know that look absolutely uncomfortable (and probably feel that way too). Just about every high level manager at the companies I used to work for were woefully overweight. For some reason, a huge gut was a ‘badge of courage’ of sorts for working all the long hours and eating all the takeout food.
Unfortunately, many of the successful entrepreneurs and business owners in the business community where I currently live (Metro Detroit) and other cities I travel to are woefully overweight and out of shape.
As I look around, it seems like there has to be an inherent tradeoff between making money and being healthy. Is this really the case? Am I really to think that the only path to wealth is a body composition that resembles that of an orca whale?
When you look at this from a high level, I can only come to the conclusion of complete insanity. It is insane to neglect your health of the sake of a more dollars. If money is simply a means to an end (time, freedom, material things, etc.) then what sense does it make to raise the odds that you won’t enjoy the end result you have created? Sounds like a bunch of work, time, money and effort for nothing to me.
I would even submit that establishing a more healthy lifestyle would be more conducive to accumulating wealth. What if you were more effective in your investing or your job? What if you just felt more energy each day when you got up? What if your body rewarded you with better performance for treating it well? I think more wealth would flow as a result of this.
If being successful is a choice (it is), then lifestyle is a choice as well. I don’t think it’s an incongruous choice, either. Success is about more than money and material wealth. It’s about contributing- leaving the earth a better place because you were on it for short speck of time.
I guess it’s all a matter of what you decide to focus on. Although I can only control myself and my own actions- I am going to monitor this trend.
More on this in future posts.
Adam,
great post!
When I first came to North America I had no clue about an obesity epidemic, yet realized fairly quickly that it was visible everywhere.
The lifestyle here is so much more wrapped around getting everywhere by car - and real walk-able cities are not the norm (although it has gotten better). So you sit all day long either in the office or in the car to get to & from the office - and then you sit some more at the computer or watching TV.
Most of my classmates that spent a high school year in the US came back with quite a few more pounds on their body frames. All the walking and biking to school and pretty much all other activities had been exchanged to getting dropped off and picked up. And the change of diet didn’t help either.
The only attempt of explanation I have in particular for successful business people would be due to traveling and Restaurant food - yet I know that pretty much every hotel has some kind of a fitness center or access to a fitness facility. Though sometimes I wonder why it seems that I am most of the time the only one using it. How much more convenient can you have it: it’s in house! You don’t even have to drive to the gym (this is one of my 5 must-have’s in my dream house).
So I agree this is insane and I am absolutely convinced that wealth without health is impossible. And a normal body weight is a huge part of this. The very consistent approach of being rewarded food/ dinner for a successfully completed project does not help either.
As for corporate America: due to the increased health costs more and more companies sponsor “getting fit activities or programs” in one way or another. Being a so called “Wellness Advocate” myself, we try to encourage more physical activities, energy balance of food input to energy output, and more non-processed food (”strive for 5″ servings of fruit & veggies per day). It’s a start and I truly hope we continue to help change at least a few people’s behavior - even though it may only be temporary.
Hope you are staying fit,
Barbara
The next 5K walk/ run is on September 13th - do you want to join?
Barb,
Great comment. I agree with the concept that our society is predicated upon sitting on the time - humans aren’t really engineered to be sedentary creatures.
Send me some info on the 5k.
Thanks!
Adam
Adam,
Although I agree somewhat with your comments, statistically you are off base.
The reality is that the poor are the ones who tend to be overweight more than the rich.
As a whole, the “rich” tend to live longer, and take better care of their health…tend to be fitter, than the poor.
Are there exceptions? Many!
But if we’re talking about the rule of thumb, you need to reverse your post. To say rich people are sacrificing their health for the sake of wealth would be incorrect from a general standpoint.
It would be more accurate to say the poor tend to not only neglect their finances (due to upbringing, opportunity, schooling, etc) but their health as well.
Dan
As just as a quick further comment, as anyone who has ever taken sociology 101 has learned, correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
In my previous post, I am NOT implying that poverty necessarily CAUSES ill health, short live span, or obesity.
But they ARE correlated.
I have my own theories as to why but I’ll spare you my rantings.
Dan
Dan,
Thanks for your comment. I appreciate your input.
Not sure I agree entirely with you, as I take a look around, at least in various cities across America, I can only see more and more people (children included) that cross the line into obesity - no matter the income class.
I hope you didn’t miss the main point of my post, which was to call attention to the fact I feel being healthy is conducive to greater productivity (greater productivity = increased income/wealth) and, that people shouldn’t think that they have to trade off health for wealth (a lot of people I know do, you probably know a few that do as well).
To your health,
Adam
Very nice post, I share the same position about this.