Hidden Wealth, Silent Legacy
It's funny how listening to this song today makes me want to laugh out loud. There was a time I would dance to the tunes and sing the lyrics with all amount of passion considering all the reasons I would want to be rich and famous.
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But it's been so many years later and remembering this song today makes me laugh at my younger self. If only she knew that my values have changed over the years and I no longer want to be rich and famous.
Nope. Now, I want to be rich but not famous. And it doesn't matter what it is I have to do to make sure this happens I am willing to do it. Whether it's being anonymous or setting up physical businesses and working as a clerk in them. Or even getting an offline job even though I would be able to pay everyone in that office including the owner every month without breaking a sweat.
No, I no longer want to be famous when I finally make it. I want to be rich codedly and enjoy myself with my loved ones. I bet you I am even thinking up different layers of ways to hide funds and assets to keep some of them out of the eyes of my family.
I do not want my children to grow up and fight over inheritance. The little they know about what they are getting the better it will be for everyone's mental health.
I have seen firsthand what the people who are rich and famous go through. Dynasty and Wura, these two movies have made it possible for me to learn the lessons and learn them well.
When people know you have something, they never rest until they take it away from you. Fallon and Blake running empires have had their share of people bringing up mud from their past, present, and future to pin on them just to get a payday. Wura suffered the most because she always had to kill someone to keep her money and sanity.
I don't even want to talk about reality. Where love is balanced on the scale of how much you have. We see women marrying men and suddenly looking for excuses to get a divorce so they can get settlements. Men aren't left out of this arrangement these days.
So you will see a rich person who is outrightly lonely because they don't know who to trust anymore. They have no idea who is in a relationship with them because of what they will be getting and who isn't.
The more access you give people to your finances, the more you expose yourself to being robbed. Flashy things bring unwanted nemesis.
Should I remind you of the scenario where your friend knows you have money, he or she wouldn't rest until they make sure you have nothing left? Don't you see how they always remember to head to your DM whenever they need financial aid? Do you think they don't have other friends? Of course, they do.
But they know you have and you always want to show off, so they patronize your ego until you are dry and low. And you suddenly sing, "When money dey friends go dey, when money no dey, friends dey go"... Lol.
Blake had different people marrying him up for his money. Fallon had different people trying to trick her off her money by introducing questioning business proposals to her. Steven had a fair share of it all. People digging into their lives to see if they will find a chance to get into their lives and take some of their riches.
And you know what? These folks did the most tragic stuff to get close to the Carringtons. Some even came up with claims of being their lost sons and bloodline. Blake's father did not make it any better because he slept with different women and had children coming out of nowhere to rid Blake of his wealth...
Morgan Housel had said it and I never forget, "The quickest way to run out of money is to spend it to show that you have". The fact that the Carringtons were always in the news doing this or that made them targets for swindlers, robberies, con artists, etc. And it was easy to get to them because their lives were basically lived in the eyes of the public. So they clearly had themselves to blame.
While people hid their money in shell companies to avoid taxes, I'll hide mine to avoid swindlers, robberies, con artists, etc. Don't ask me if I know how I'll go about it because I don't. All I know is I'll learn and I'll make sure it works out.
I want a peaceful family for my children to grow in, not a chaotic one like the one Wura, Blake, and Fallon had.
To not waste any more of your time, I hope that when you meet my younger self, you will tell her, that being rich and famous is no longer my dream, instead, I'll choose to be rich and not famous.
More from iska
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Dynasty Builders, Legacies & the Art of Generational Success