A first-person YouTube monologue (speaker Nate Auffort) reflecting on money, choice and freedom while recounting a mid-week vacation in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia. The speaker contrasts modern cash economies with places that still barter, critiques familiar sayings that minimize money ("money's not my priority", "money doesn't grow on trees"), and argues that building income-generating businesses removes money as a constraint so you can genuinely choose whether money is a priority. Travel anecdotes (private island, sparsely populated resort) illustrate the freedom earned by prior work.
Chapters
Money doesn't buy happiness. Money isn't everything. Money's not my priority right now. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is the root of all evil. With money isn't everything. Money is not important. Money is not our priority. Last time I checked, to have a choice, you have to have the ability. You have to choose one. Do you have the ability to wake up in the morning and choose whether money is a priority for you that day? And a lot of people don't want to look themselves in the mirror and realize that you either own money or money owns you. Money doesn't buy happiness. Money isn't everything. I agree with that, guys. And it's funny, though, we all say that, but if we really take a good look at money, I mean, the best one I heard the other day was, you know, today, you know, money's not my priority right now. And I was thinking about that, and I'm sitting here on this beautiful resort in St. Lucia, and it's pretty awesome because we're here during the middle of the week, and it's like we literally have this entire resort to ourselves and maybe eight other people. And I was talking to one, and even the guys, this is a very exclusive resort. I took my wife here as a surprise. We kind of piggybacked on another trip that we were doing out here in St. Lucia, and we've been here since Monday to Thursday. And we're getting ready to leave as all the other people are starting to come in. I was asking, why is this so empty? You know, it's eight in the middle of May, and I was wondering why it was so empty. And even the guys here said, well, people are at work. It's during the week. Everyone comes in on the weekends. And on the weekends, this thing is just packed full of people. And there's, you know, Instead of having five people in the bar and restaurant, there's 100 people in the bar and restaurant. So just being able to be here during that time where there's not the hustle and the bustle has been so relaxing. We're tucked away in Marigot Bay in St. Lucia. It's. It's one of the prettiest days according to, you know, different magazines, TripAdvisor, wherever you want to go, look, one of the beautiful, most beautiful bays in the world. And we got to go to a private island yesterday, which was very, very, very cool. And it started making me think, you know, because we're pulling up and we have our own little hobby cat, sailboat, typ And I would have done it myself, but my wife wanted me to have instructor there just in case. Since we were going into the open ocean and we came out of the bay, we rounded this big, huge mountain, and we started approaching this just private beach. And there were some fishing huts there and stuff. And as I got off the boat, I started to think, because the guy that was actually taking us there, that was helping us to navigate over to the private beach ran up and was doing trading. He was bartering still. There's places here in St. Lucia where people still barter for their food. And he went and gave him something, and he got a bag full of plantains and grapefruits and different fruits. And, you know, he was taking that back for his family. And see, where we come from, guys, we don't barter anymore. We have to spend money. It's like waking up in the morning. Think how silly this would be. People wake up in the morning and go, you know, food's not my priority today. Well, it should be, because if you don't eat, you're gonna die. And if you're gonna die, you don't have any other priorities that are going on. So saying that money is not my priority, I understand that. And see, I think people confuse chasing money versus chasing freedom. Because I didn't want. I chased money for a long time, and it eluded me. Then I wanted to. Freedom. See, to me is if you can get money out of the way, get the money game out of the way, that will give you the freedom to do the lifestyle that you want to do. While most people are out at work today, we're sitting here enjoying ourselves, getting ready to lay out in the sun and enjoy such a romantic day with me and my wife. And see, that was a couple years of hard work, which turned it into freedom. See, to make money, to have the ability. See, last time I checked, to have a choice, you have to have the ability. You have to choose one. See, I can choose today if I want money to be my priority or if I want my vacation or time with my wife to be my priority. That's a choice. You have to have the ability to have both as a choice. So when people wake up or they tell me, you know, hey, money's not my priority today. How is that a choice? See, because if you don't have money, you don't eat, you don't have money, you don't have a roof over your head, you don't have money, you don't have gas to put in the car. So what I've learned in my life and seeking out many more mentors is that you either own money or money owns you. And a lot of people don't want to look themselves in the mirror and realize that, oh, no. They say all these trite expressions that we heard growing up, like, money doesn't grow on trees. And money is not everything. And, you know, the love of money or money is the root of all evil. And my Bible said, the love of money is the root of all evil. And they do it to almost make themselves feel better because they don't have that choice. And I understand that, guys. I did that for years. Like, you know, well, money's really not that important. See, if I don't have a business, I don't have something that's generating me income. Whether I work or not, I am a slave to money. I am owned by money. Money owns me. The decision that I make is, do I get up Monday morning? So I go to my job. My job in order for me to go out and put my hours in, so I get a paycheck in order for me to survive. So if money's not a priority, can you imagine money morning waking up going, yeah, you know, money's not a priority to me. I'm not going to show up for work and see how long that job lasts. So it's not about being in love with money. It's not about chasing the money. Guys, the whole thing about developing an independent business and a sales organization that continues to grow, continues to duplicate your efforts and to make your money when you're not working is to have the ability to choose in your life whether that money is a priority for you today. That's all. Working hard now to develop and generate something that continues to pay you when you don't have to work, then you truly do have that freedom that we talk about. And then money is not an issue, and money doesn't have to be the priority. So the question I think we all have to ask ourselves, not if money is important, because that's a silly question. We all know money is important. Money is important. Survival. We don't barter anymore. We actually pay for things and the quality of things that we get, whether it be a service or a product or a good or a home or a car or a neighborhood or a vacation, the quality that we get determines by how much money we're willing to trade for that. So the question we have to ask ourselves is, do you have the ability to wake up in the morning and choose whether money is a priority for you that day. And in order for you to wake up and say, money is not a priority, you have to have something that you've developed that's giving you all the money that you need, whether you work or not. So our choice here, guys, is not whether money isn't everything or money is not important or money is not our priority. The question is, do you own money or you owned by.
