True Wealth Is Relationships Not Money

The good life is life with people.

Hi everyone, I know I said I was going to do a 100-day challenge, but I’ve decided to stop. For one, if I don’t have anything meaningful to say, I’d rather not say anything at all. Posting just to meet a quota felt careless. Also… I tested positive for influenza A, so life has been a bit of a living hell lately. But that’s not why you’re here—I have something I really want to share today.

For the longest time, I thought the only way I could achieve certain things—reach certain heights, start certain projects or businesses—was through money. I believed everything came down to having the finances or access to finances that could afford whatever it was I wanted to do.

But in my recent affairs, I’ve noticed something different. I’ve been able to accomplish a lot—things that required money—even when I didn’t have it. And the reason was simple: I had relationships.

It was only through building relationships, maintaining them, nurturing them, working on them—and making sure I wasn’t just using people for what they had—that I realized something important.

Wealth is relationships.

Wealth is not money.
Wealth isn’t even “who you know” in that shallow sense.

If you want a good life—if you want a financially stable life—you build relationships. Because it’s one thing to have money to send yourself wherever, buy whatever, do whatever. But it’s another thing entirely to have a community. To have people willing to work with you, help you when you don’t have the money. And people you are also helping when they don’t have it.

Because it truly is more blessed to give than to receive.

The best experiences in life come from people. You cannot succeed in life if you don’t like people. You have to be a people person. And that was hard for me to wrap my head around, because I’ve been selfish. Self‑serving. Always thinking, me, me, me.

“Oh, they forgot my birthday.”
“They don’t care about me.”
“They don’t want me around.”
Me. Me. Me.

But that’s not even it.

I am not the center of attention.
If anything, you are.

I’m here to be the best person I can be for the sake of other people.

A lot of my principles—honestly, probably all of them—come from the Bible, and one of the biggest lessons is that life is not about me. It’s about everyone else. Even that bald lady in Doctor Strange said it (I think in the first movie): the most important lesson of all—it’s not about you.

And she was right.

How could life ever be about us? That kind of thinking is selfish. Very Western, honestly. I didn’t think this way as much before living in this country. But if I’m being real, that’s not the whole truth either—because growing up, the trauma people cause you can make you want to live life without people.

But a successful life is never without people.

A successful life includes people—in the heart, in the pain, in the betrayal, in all of it. True strength is found in not letting those things change you. In going out and loving as if you’ve never been hurt before.

That is power.
That is strength.
That is wealth.

That is relationships.

I was thinking about a project I worked on last year and all the people who helped me. I didn’t pay any of them. People lent me their time, money, resources, opportunities, platforms—simply because they knew me. Because we shared lunches, conversations, jokes, events. Because I wasn’t a terrible person.

And that counted for more than money ever could.

Money is not life. It’s a tool. And yes, it helps you access good things—but the good life itself is found in your relationships with people.

So don’t be rude.
Don’t be mean.
Not even to customer service.
Not even to people you can’t see on the internet.

We are all people. And because of that, we are all deserving of respect. We are all important. There is value in our existence.

Wealth is relationships.

Build good relationships.
Build community.
Forgive—this one is big.

People have hurt you. I know that. But holding onto that doesn’t help you. You still need to keep going. I won’t even say “move on,” because I don’t know what hurt you or how deep it goes. But you do.

You deserve to live the good life.