Is Money Bad?

Once upon a time, a few years ago, I was speaking with a small business owner about her pricing and she said that, really, if it were up to her, she wouldn’t charge anything for her services. Because, she said, money is bad. And only bad people have money.

Money is bad. And only bad people have money.

Oh.

So I guess we have to choose: we’re either good or we have money. 

I don’t like it one bit.

I think that’s a false choice. And also, the dirtiest trick in the book, in my opinion, this equation. Just a lowdown dirty trick perpetrated on artists and creatives and thinkers and women and other non-members of the old (white) boys club. Just a bullshit notion that’s been planted deep in our psyches by which we do their bidding and keep ourselves small.

Excuse me, but fuck that shit.

Amongst all the ways that we Upper Limit ourselves (read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks if you don’t know what I’m talking about), that we Imposter Syndrome ourselves,  and just generally stand in the way of our own ease and prosperity, that one thought — money is for bad people — is perhaps the most insidious.

I myself was raised by people who wore money-struggle a bit like a badge of honor, you know, as a mark of intellect, of an artistic nature. Money is a tawdry subject of which we shall not speak. It’s trashy to talk about money. We’re above such considerations. It’s so interesting when you start to peel back the layers of what you imbibed as a child, when it comes to this thing that makes the world go ‘round.

All I want to say here is that you can be good AND you can have money. That in and of itself, having some, doesn’t negate your goodness. Or your artistic nature.

It’s just energy, man, is all that money is. A medium to exchange value. I want you to have as much of it as you can handle, to roll  Scrooge McDuck in it figuratively if that’s what it takes to shed your scarcity once and for all. I want you to have all the tools in the world at your disposal to re-make the world how you think it should be. I want you to value your gifts appropriately, charge for them, do well, be comfortable, save and give.

Is there a thought you have about money that could possibly be standing in your way? What if it’s just a thought, and not true? What could be possible for you then?