{"id":520,"date":"2009-05-27T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2009-05-26T22:03:36","modified_gmt":"2009-05-27T03:03:36","slug":"they-can%e2%80%99t-get-no-satisfaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/27\/they-can%e2%80%99t-get-no-satisfaction\/","title":{"rendered":"They Can\u2019t Get No Satisfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s not about the money, and money can\u2019t buy happiness<\/a>, then what are RMITs doing it for? As I\u2019ve said before, money is a way to keep track, not of how rich you are, but of how successful. The wealth that comes from success is how they know they\u2019re executing. So at what point do RMITs decide they\u2019ve done what they set out to do, and settle down to play golf or sit on the beach? The short answer is never. RMITs seek accomplishment, and derive their happiness from their achievements. But just because they are happy does not mean they are satisfied. RMITs are questers, always searching for that next mountain to climb or business to build. Despite his billions of net worth, David Rubenstein<\/strong>, richest man in Washington, D.C., and head of private equity firm The Carlyle Group<\/strong>, joked, \u201cI\u2019m Jewish and I\u2019m not supposed to be happy. It would make me unhappy to be happy because, I would realize that I\u2019m not trying hard enough.\u201d In our interview, I asked him how much is enough: he quoted Felix Rohatyn<\/strong>\u2019s famous answer to that question: \u201cTwice as much as you currently have.\u201d He added, \u201cOnce you get on the merry-go-round of making money, it is very difficult to get off of it.\u201d RMITs are like kids on a merry-go-round; they want to keep going again and again.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Rob Reiner<\/strong>, of New York University Medical Center<\/strong>, says, \u201cWe\u2019re neurologically wired to never be content.\u201d This is especially true of RMITs; if they were satisfied with their accomplishments, they would have nothing to strive for, and without that, they get bored, bored, bored. If they have to, once they\u2019ve achieved all they can with one venture, they\u2019ll start all over again. They can never be totally satisfied, because feeling satisfied, in their minds, would mean the fun is over. \u201cI believe in the Buddhist philosophy<\/a> that the journey is the reward,\u201d Pat McGovern<\/strong>, the richest man in Hollis, New Hampshire, told me. He founded IDG<\/strong>, the world\u2019s leading technology publishing, research, and event management company, in 1964. More than 40 years later, McGovern\u2019s privately held company has revenues in excess of $3\u00a0billion and he has no desire to sell: \u201cWhy would I want something to end that is so much fun and continues to bring me such pleasure and such rewards?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s not about the money, and money can\u2019t buy happiness<\/a>, then what are RMITs doing it for? As I\u2019ve said before, money is a way to keep track, not of how rich you are, but of how successful. The wealth that comes from success is how they know they\u2019re executing. So at what point do RMITs decide they\u2019ve done what they set out to do, and settle down to play golf or sit on the beach? The short answer is never. RMITs seek accomplishment, and derive their happiness from their achievements. But just because they are happy does not mean they are satisfied. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[160,157],"tags":[184,183,185,189,187,188,186,190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.richestmanintown.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}