One of the most powerful — and challenging — questions I’ve ever confronted in career and financial planning is the “lottery question:” what would you do if money were no object in your consideration?
Economists sometimes insist that economics and markets are amoral, but of course that’s not true. More to the point, are we willing to tolerate a culture that insists it is all right to do wrong in the marketplace or public square?
Even if you can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a billion dollars, it’s worth imagining what you’d do with it — how you’d live, what decisions you’d make, how and with whom you’d spend it.
The answers might be slipperier than you think, since a billion dollars can go awfully far. Keep asking “and then what?” until you have a real answer. You might learn something about your values — and how you’re living them.
Colin Steele 