Click on the video above to watch/listen.
What follows below, if you scroll down, is the original script written for delivery at a TEDx event on 11th January 2025. The video of the delivery is here.
The script below is the original version containing a few additional special lines near the end.
Watch the video if you prefer to listen, read the script below, or do both!
Please share the video with as many people as possible. That might be all it takes to help someone see their life from a fresh perspective and make decisions differently.
If you find it useful, please share this with your family and friends. All the other 170+ articles are here.
If you would like detailed guidance to discreetly upgrade your life – health and wealth – visit the mentoring page or the coaching conversation page.
(NEW!) For some testimonials from around the world, go here.
Overall Structure
Electricity Failure
My Business Today
1234You Can Do It Too
1234Would You Like to Know More?
3 Statements
3 Facts
3 Defining Features of Any Business
The Business of Living
1234Why Do I Call It a Business?
1234What Form of Profits and Value?
1234Stockbroker
1234The Value Expression
1234Sunset Price
What About Actual Cash?
1234Money is a Tool
12342 Forms of Wealth
Why this Internal Wealth Talk?
1234Define – Rich Man
1234Economists, Children & Workers
12342 Stages of Thinking
1234Why Internal > External?
1234Zero Billion
Portfolio Allocation Wrong
1234Consequence
Adding Up Asset Classes
1234Time is Money
1234Bridging the Gap
123460 + 90
Unfair Without Insights
1234Definition of Investment
1234Now, You Have a Choice
1234Grow & Move with Common Currency
Vision Statement
1234Decision Making
1234The 3rd Key Takeaway
Invisible Returns => Missing Out
1234Life is Short
1234Potential to Control
1234Imagine
Strong Finish
Parting Message
Electricity Failure [top]
I grew up in Mumbai in the nineteen-seventies. We were fortunate that power cuts were rare. But, I remember very clearly one of those rare nights when there WAS a power cut. There was a TINY INCIDENT that would change my life forever. I was 9 years old, and I don’t remember what prompted her to, but my mother, in her usual quiet and kind voice, said to me, “Your father does not have much money, so whatever you want to get out of life, you will have to do it yourself”
I never spoke to her about that night again, but what she said that night, when there was a FAILURE of electricity, was pivotal for the SUCCESS that I would have in the decades ahead.
My Business Today [top]
Today, I am invested in a business that continues to generate a large amount of wealth for me. I COULD add that I have a PhD in Finance and that I ran a hedge fund at one time, but as EXCITING as that was, it is an IRRELEVANT fact. BECAUSE, I did not make a huge amount of money running a hedge fund. Instead, there is this other business that I am here to talk about which HAS generated a massive amount of wealth.
You Can Do It Too [top]
Most importantly, I’m excited to tell you that you can easily be doing the same too. It doesn’t matter what your background is. Your level of education, your business and social connections, your current wealth – almost irrelevant for you to amass a large amount of wealth in this business. In fact, within reason, the less money you THINK you have, the more wealth you might generate with it.
Would You Like to Know More? [top]
Raise your hand if you would like to know more details. Good, then over the next few minutes, I will ensure that when you leave today, you will know what to do next about generating immense wealth for yourself.
3 Statements [top]
Consider these 3 statements and decide instantly (in your head) how true or false you think each of them is.
Number 1. Wealth leads to happiness
Number 2. Time travel is possible today
Number 3. Slavery has been abolished
3 Facts [top]
Now, we must first cover 3 relevant facts to be successful in this business.
The FIRST thing is the awareness that…
Like me, you too came INTO THIS LIFE with nothing, and will go with nothing. So did every wealthy person in the past and so will every wealthy person in the future.
The SECOND thing is the awareness that…
At every waking moment, you’re dealing with what I call The Unholy Trinity. As the name suggests, it has 3 parts. The instinct to escape pain, to seek pleasure and to conserve energy. Because of this Unholy Trinity your focus, like that of the animals and birds around you, is on the world outside you.
The THIRD thing is about a wonderful HUMAN INVENTION – the concept of money, that other creatures do not have. We see representations of this money in the OUTSIDE world whenever we’re awake, but the concept also sits INSIDE our heads, usually programmed in during early childhood.
3 Defining Features of Any Business [top]
Now, let’s think about 3 defining features of any business.
Ultimately, a business has to serve its owners.
The owners should therefore be able to exert control over their business
Profits from the business must go to the owners who take the business risk
The Business of Living [top]
So, now let’s talk about this business that’s going to make you wealthy. I have been invested in mine for over 50 years. You too have been investing in a very similar business. It is the business called “living”.
Why Do I Call It a Business? [top]
Well, think about the life you want to be living and what I just said about a business:
Ultimately, a business has to serve its owners.
The owners should therefore be able to exert control over their business
Profits from the business must go to the owners who take the business risk
So, surely this business of “living” is a business you and I must take seriously!
What Form of Profits and Value? [top]
But what ARE these “profits” from such a business? How do you extract VALUE from this business called Living?
Stockbroker [top]
No 4-year-old or 84-year-old wants to be a dentist or stockbroker. These are professions that earn us money and, hopefully, provide job satisfaction. What we all want is joy in life. And no one on their deathbed wishes they had spent an extra hour in the office.
The Value Expression [top]
So, to extract VALUE from this life, no matter how rich or poor, you are looking to maximize the total pleasure in your life ahead, while minimizing the total PAIN in your life ahead
Sunset Price [top]
Everything comes with a price including things that fall under the category of “the best things in life are free.” The pleasure of a beautiful sunset comes with the effort of reaching a place on earth where you can SEE the sunset.
What complicates matters is that we want to feel pleasure now, but we want to push pain endlessly into the future, something that’s not going to happen.
What About Actual Cash? [top]
At this point, you could ask, “But, what about actually making money? I can only buy food and take care of my family if I have money in my bank account.”
Money is a Tool [top]
I have no problem with “money.” In fact, I LOVE money!
Money isn’t the root of all evil. A knife isn’t evil. The human inventions of money and knives are just tools. Do you want the knife to slice an apple or to hurt someone?
2 Forms of Wealth [top]
And so, this brings us to the 1st take home gift for you:
Understand that you have 2 forms of wealth:
– that which is outside you, your EXTERNAL wealth
AND
– that which is inside you, your INTERNAL wealth
We know a lot about our EXTERNAL wealth. From stock market investments to rare pieces of art.
Our INTERNAL wealth we pay very little CONSCIOUS attention to. OUR physical health, OUR mental health, OUR emotional wealth, and for ME, the most important, OUR spiritual wealth.
Why this Internal Wealth Talk? [top]
You might now say, “Dude, yeah, sure, internal wealth is important. But I need to make money to take care of myself and my family?”
So, let us consider the definition of “a rich man”.
Define – Rich Man [top]
Before I worked in the world of hedge funds, I worked as an actuary. When an insurance company has to assess its financial health, it compares its financial assets with its financial liabilities. Unfortunately, even some of my wealthiest friends, working hard to make more money, cannot define what a rich man is. No, it is NOT someone who HAS a lot of money. It is someone who doesn’t NEED more money! If you come across someone who has a lot of money, and they BEHAVE as if they NEED more, then in my opinion they’re not rich. And if someone tells you that she does not need more money, then I would say she’s rich, without us needing to know what her bank balance is.
Economists, Children & Workers [top]
Humans have always competed for scarce resources. In studying this, economists typically collapse satisfaction or happiness into financial wealth. This is based on the argument that financial wealth is a tangible and measurable proxy for satisfaction or happiness. It makes the mathematics easy to wrestle with for academic work. And, it makes statistics convenient to report. But there is a dangerous flaw it inserts into the way society and its individuals operate. The pursuit of external wealth is used as a proxy for our FUTURE ability to CONSUME things.
From a young age, children are spoon-fed the idea that exam grades will translate into money in the future.
During your working years, everything around you reinforces the idea that earning more money will allow you to buy more things after you retire.
2 Stages of Thinking [top]
I have no problem with “wealth.” In fact, I LOVE wealth!
But, when I think about my wealth, my first level of thinking is my INTERNAL wealth AND my EXTERNAL wealth. My second thought is, if you are not wealthy INTERNALLY then you are not wealthy no matter how much EXTERNAL wealth you have.
Why Internal > External? [top]
Take your physical health for example. If you’re bedridden, will it help that you have a second home, by the beach with a beautiful view?
Take your mental health. Without it, can you even manage your financial wealth?
If your emotional health is poor, can you enjoy all the wonderful relationships you might have with your friends who also have a lot of money?
Zero Billion [top]
And, so to enjoy your external wealth to the fullest you MUST have internal wealth.
Zero times a billion is still Zero!
The proper functioning of your 4 business units that hold your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wealth is essential if you’re going to enjoy your external wealth.
Portfolio Allocation Wrong [top]
So, it is not that we do not understand that INTERNAL WEALTH is important.
But we do not construct a BALANCED PORTFOLIO to GROW our TOTAL WEALTH.
Consequence [top]
As a CONSEQUENCE, we do not maximize that VALUE EXPRESSION of the business of living – the value of a lifetime of PLEASURE MINUS PAIN.
It is LOGICAL in any domain that if my process is wrong, then my outcome will not be what I want. And so, if I invest incorrectly, I will not get the returns from my business that I want.
Adding Up Asset Classes [top]
I talked about how your wealth is your external wealth AND your internal wealth. But, how do I add these 2 up?
For my EXTERNAL wealth – I can physically convert my Dollars into Pounds or SIMPLY report it in any of 180 currencies.
For my INTERNAL wealth – how do I add up all the components? I cannot multiply my IQ by my EQ and divide by my body fat percentage, and raise that to the power of how spiritual I THINK I am.
And if it is my total wealth that interests me, how do I add my INTERNAL wealth to my EXTERNAL wealth? Can I really say that my INTERNAL wealth PLUS my EXTERNAL wealth is nineteen hundred and sixty-nine dollars? I can say it, but it wouldn’t feel right, because it doesn’t make NATURAL sense.
How do we bridge this gap, to have a common currency for measuring your INTERNAL WEALTH and EXTERNAL WEALTH?
Time is Money [top]
The business world will tell you that “time is money” when they want to squeeze some more juice out of you. We can use that as a starting point and say, “If I had more money, I could pay others to do some of my work and to free up my time. And, if I had more time I could make more money.” But WHAT KIND of time? And if we see money as an ability to PAY for things, what about the ABILITY to ENJOY those things?
Bridging the Gap [top]
And so, here is the
2nd key takeaway.
The common currency that bridges our INTERNAL WEALTH and EXTERNAL WEALTH is NOT Time, but Healthy Time. Your Healthspan measures your HEALTHY TIME, your years of HEALTHY living, as opposed to your LIFESPAN which includes years of sickness and disability.
60 + 90 [top]
So, you can see that if you’re just 60 and quite sick, with no real possibility of a life of vitality again, you might have a lot of EXTERNAL WEALTH but your total wealth is closer to zero!
And, if you’re in your 90s and have all your faculties intact, can regularly travel across the world independently, and live happily on a limited budget, we’d all agree that you ARE superbly WEALTHY.
Unfair Without Insights [top]
Having brought you thus far, explained what your TOTAL wealth is, and given you a framework to CONVERT between different forms of it, it would be unfair to leave you without practical insights on how to GROW that total wealth.
Definition of Investment [top]
Whether it is money in your bank account or your healthy waking hours, the definition of investment holds – a deferral or delaying of consumption, with the HOPE of consuming more later.
You can leave CASH lying in a drawer and it won’t grow, but if you put it in the bank, you will grow that EXTERNAL wealth.
TIME, on the other hand, keeps ticking away, whether you do anything with it or not.
Now, You Have a Choice [top]
So, now you have a choice – if you do not use your Healthy Time wisely, it will be an expense and REDUCE your INTERNAL WEALTH. And, if you invest it wisely, you can GROW your INTERNAL wealth AND your EXTERNAL WEALTH.
You might, for instance, invest some of the hours in exercise to generate INTERNAL physical wealth.
You might invest some healthy hours in a job or business that provide you with EXTERNAL wealth.
You might even invest some of those waking hours AND money in further study. By upskilling, you will be building your MENTAL wealth. You can then convert THAT to greater EXTERNAL wealth.
Grow & Move with Common Currency [top]
So, you can GROW your wealth, AND you can MOVE BETWEEN INTERNAL wealth and EXTERNAL wealth, with this idea of Healthy Time as the COMMON currency.
Vision Statement [top]
Like any other business, I too announced a Vision Statement many years ago. ”To be socially productive at a hundred and ten”. The audacity of it surprises many people. But I am yet to discover a Vision Statement that better represents what I want my business of Living to be about.
Decision Making [top]
I would like to make my VISION a REALITY. So, the investment decisions that I make, as I cruise through life, are on 2 dimensions
- What combination of pain and pleasure do I want?
- How do I distinguish between,
-
- pain and pleasure that is bad for me,
versus,
- pain and pleasure that is bad for me,
-
- pain and pleasure that is good for me?
While bearing in mind 2 things,…
that I am making a decision NOW, but that that decision RIGHT NOW, CAN define my future,
AND,
Therefore, in that VALUE EXPRESSION, about a lifetime of pleasure and pain, I can change the THIRD DIMENSION – the REMAINING FUTURE HEALTHY TIME that I will have, during which I can experience FURTHER pleasure.
The 3rd Key Takeaway [top]
And, so, here we have it. The 3rd key takeaway. It is said that we cannot get back lost time. But if you invest your HEALTHY TIME well, you can manufacture more HEALTHY TIME. Doing so will allow you to enjoy the benefits of more INTERNAL, EXTERNAL and TOTAL WEALTH.
Invisible Returns => Missing Out [top]
You can read the printed interest rate when you deposit your money in the bank. But we don’t see the same investment return of HEALTHY TIME displayed next to each choice of pain or pleasure in our daily lives. And so, we MISS OUT on opportunities to be able to GROW our TOTAL wealth, through the path growing our INTERNAL wealth. And so, we MISS OUT on enjoying MORE of our EXTERNAL wealth before we die.
Life is Short [top]
We say, life is short, enjoy it. Yet, we invest our healthy time in making money, that we end up not being able to enjoy. We go through a CERTAIN QUANTITY of pain without the commensurate gain. Your EXTERNAL wealth is meant to be a good servant to your INTERNAL wealth. Instead, for so many of us, our INTERNAL wealth is a SLAVE to our EXTERNAL wealth.
Potential to Control [top]
Each of us has the POTENTIAL within ourselves to control all 4 of our business units that hold our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wealth. The POTENTIAL to develop mastery over each and all of them. So that they serve us. Just like our EXTERNAL wealth is meant to serve us.
Imagine [top]
Imagine growing your EXTERNAL WEALTH, enjoying life to the fullest, WHILE continuously growing your INTERNAL WEALTH. Time passes quickly when you’re having fun. Before you know it, you’ve reached 100, and you are still enjoying life with independent travel, good food, and time in nature.
Strong Finish [top]
Half a century ago, my mother advised me to make whatever I had to of my life on my own because my father did not have much money. Like she so wisely advised, I have not taken a penny from my father after the age of 18. However, I HAVE taken a huge amount of wealth, INTERNAL WEALTH, from both him and her in the form of PRACTICAL WISDOM. Last week, my father, now in his 94th year, flew from London to Mumbai. Just like he does every year, he will invest the next few months in our village in Assam. There, even at this age, he sows seeds for new plants, to bear vegetables, fruits, and flowers, with full optimism that he will experience the fruits of that labour in the years to come. I know how little money he has in his bank account, but given what I believe is his TOTAL wealth, he is the WEALTHIEST man I know.
When you leave today, I would like you to focus on TIME TRAVEL, into the very distant future, and visualize a journey with NO INVISIBLE SLAVERY, and an accumulation of MASSIVE TOTAL WEALTH over which YOU have significant control.
Where there may have been some darkness in our paths, I hope I have shone some light. I leave it up to you now to TAKE ACTION.
Parting Message [top]
If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you want to be guided in detail, you know how to reach me, and if you found this useful, please do share it with others.
Puru
Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.
Puru The Guru 