Is money the root of all evil? It certainly seems to be the case in our mainstream media. Every so often we see news articles like “Greedy CEO Cheats Thousands of Life Savings,” or “Corrupt Politician Misappropriates Taxpayer Funds.” It’s no wonder that our culture associates wealth with greed, corruption, and amorality. However, this paradigm creates a significant challenge for salespeople and business owners alike.
The Problem if Money is the Root of All Evil
If “money is the root of all evil,” then what on Earth are we all doing pursuing it? How can we possibly be effective at earning it, or feel good about being wealthy? Every time you attempt to close a sale or send an invoice, a niggling feeling at the back of your mind will sabotage your confidence and poison you with guilt (this is known in psychology as “cognitive dissonance”). If you want to be a successful salesperson and business owner, you must have the right attitude and perspective on money… And it begins with recognising that money is NOT the root of all evil!
The Solution
To help correct this faulty notion, it helps to understand where it came from in the first place. Its origin is actually from the Bible, where 1 Timothy 6:10 reads: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil1.” So we can see that it’s not money that’s the root of all evil, it’s the love of money. Somewhere along the track, someone misquoted this timeless wisdom which has now become mainstream. Correcting the flawed mindset requires this subtle but critical distinction: money can be a tool for good or evil, but a person obsessed with earning it is walking on a path that will inevitably lead to sorrow.
Conclusion – Is Money the Root of All Evil?
The journey to wealth and business success begins with the right attitude towards money. The first step of this journey is to recognise that our current way of thinking has been negatively influenced by the media and the misquoted Bible verse. I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to my blog as I continue writing about how to correct these mindsets, and please also feel free to express your thoughts with me directly or via the comments.
To your success,
Ben Lai
1 New International Version, emphasis added.
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