Success Spectrum: Money And Success — Understanding Our Most Complicated Relationship

One of the most critical relationships we deal with every day is not with a person. It is with something that determines in a big way how we deal with people – Money.

Money is not success, but make no mistake, there is no success without money either. In the training world, the power of money has led to many courses on how to attract it and become rich and prosperous. I myself teach an affirmation in my training sessions – ‘Money comes to me daily, easily and frequently’.

Money is what drives the world economy, which in turn, shapes the political and social spectrum. I grew up in an India which had embraced socialism, but was forced to marry capitalism due to the economic liberalisation in 1991, thrust upon the country by the balance of payments crisis. The socialist India was vastly different from its capitalist version. Actually, in the socialist era, we were different people too, and at best we adapted to the new way of life. Perhaps many of us at our core still hold strong socialist values, often struggling with the overpowering nature of money. The post 1991 generation is far more comfortable in its relationship with money as it is devoid of the socialist context.

As a student of politics, we used to study and debate about communism and capitalism. As a college student too, I believed in the power of capitalism as it allows people the freedom to BE, whereas communism as an ideology vests a lot of power in the State. India embraced socialism as a middle path, and still somewhere grapples with the socialist-capitalist contradiction.

Liberalisation opened up India’s cultural landscape in a big way and paved the way for dramatic shifts in lifestyle and definition of power. The idea of power started shifting from mere personality to money possession. Money thus has acquired a cult status, and though it is not a person, has subjugated the human personality itself. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is threatening to do the same.

The ‘tyranny’ of money and AI is on your face now and acts as a constant test of our relevance. While perspectives around AI are still developing, fortunately, a lot of education around money earning and management is already available. True success lies in the way we conduct ourselves with respect to others and also the kind of relationship we strike with money.

Money is not just a currency, it is an emotion in itself. Its intensity can be overbearing and intimidating. As the world itself grapples with high intensity capitalism and the stresses that come with it, money management is a lot personal and not just global. Individual happiness and success now depend upon just how much more micro the treatment is.

Common people generally do not understand macro economics and the terminologies that define a nation’s economy. All they understand is how much money they have to play the game of life, which seems to be getting complicated by the day – globally. Common people are surrounded by uncontrollable factors that make money making increasingly difficult, where more is less, thanks to the inflation, which, like death, seems certain, and unlike death, which is once, keeps scaling newer heights.

Success demands discomfort at various stages of life, and somewhere it is the fight for money that breaks us and yet keeps us in the game too. To feel comfortable with ‘enough’ wealth in the bank is critical for scaling greater heights of success, as that allows you the space to manoeuvre and navigate.

The heightened levels of capitalism mean the responsibility to make money and manage it lies with us. Given its capitalistic personality, it is not just about earning, spending and saving anymore. It requires intricate planning. External factors majorly drive our internal choices, making it imperative to seek out good sound financial advice. The right piece of advice will also provide us with the right kind of peace of mind. After all, isn’t success about being peaceful too?

So, if you have not already done, go, seek out a good Financial Planner, NOW!

Hariharan Iyer is a seasoned Motivational Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Author of multiple management books. He is the Founder-Creator of Hariharan’s School Of Success Education (HSSE) - www.thehsse.com. He is popularly referred to as The Enter-Trainer®.

Published on: Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 07:00 AM IST