海角大神

I want to tell you about a guy I know that I鈥檒l call Jeff.

Jeff is in his middle years. He鈥檚 one of those guys who just naturally makes people feel comfortable around him, with a bit of slight deprecation and a great smile always at the ready. He tries really hard to remember your name even if you鈥檝e only met him once.

Jeff is always clean and presentable, but he鈥檚 usually underdressed for every occasion. He鈥檚 the guy who鈥檚 wearing the most casual clothing in the room. He鈥檒l show up for a wedding in older jeans and either a decent t-shirt or the one button-up shirt he has in his closet.

Everyone likes Jeff, though a lot of people had just assumed that he was relatively poor. He lives alone in a pretty small house and, although he owns a car, it was about ten years old and no one could remember him ever driving it, since he usually rides around on his bicycle even in the coldest months.

Jeff is just a comfortable person to be around. You don鈥檛 feel self-conscious around him in either a positive or a negative way.

A while back, I was talking to Jeff about what he did for a living because, frankly, I didn鈥檛 know.

鈥淚 mostly rebuild bicycles these days,鈥� he told me.

I was surprised there was money in that. He said there wasn鈥檛, really, but that he did it because he liked doing it. He liked taking rusty old bicycles, fixing them up into working order, and selling them at a low rate to college students in the area. He mostly did it via word of mouth and Craigslist.

Honestly, it seems like a fun business to be in, particularly if you enjoy bicycling and like fixing things, which Jeff really seems to.

A few days later, I was talking about this to a mutual friend who just smiled and said, 鈥淛eff didn鈥檛 always repair bicycles.鈥�

It turns out that Jeff used to work in a very stressful position in upper management at a local company. He was the guy who would get called in when there was a major reorganization to be done or a disaster to fix. Just by doing his job, he鈥檇 spend all day in tense discussions with people who were stressed out about Jeff potentially firing them.

One day, apparently, he walked in and fired himself.

Of course, Jeff had done this the smart way. For almost the entire time he鈥檇 worked there, he鈥檇 saved half of his take-home pay. That sits in the bank for security, because Jeff now lives off of his bicycle money. His little house is paid for. His car is paid for. He has a bunch of money in the bank.

The best part? You only have to spend a few minutes around Jeff to realize that he鈥檚 pretty much at peace with the world.

So, what鈥檚 the gospel of Jeff?聽Money is just a tool.聽Are you going to be the person using that tool, saving up so that you can life your life the way you want? Or are you going to be the person used by it, manipulated by stress and bills and supervisors?

The difference is just a bunch of stuff.

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