I mentioned previously that I come from a family of academics. One of the downsides of being highly educated is that we tend to not be so great with money. Education doesn’t pay. Up to now, I’ve been good in school, but I’ve yet to learn what it takes to make a formidable amount of money. Money is not unimportant. It’s not the most important thing there is as in you shouldn’t worship it, but a wise citizen needs to respect money. Money is a source of freedom. It’s often referred to as a tool for one to obtain what he or she wants in life. Unfortunately, I’ve only experienced it as a source of control and influence. Thank you mom and dad.
My parents have always told me that making money is not easy. That’s sort of an obvious statement. But I think growing up, I didn’t have a good enough respect for money. I tended to buy a lot of things I didn’t need. Part of it is because I didn’t really know how to buy things. A bit of it was just me doing research because, at the end of the day, I don’t think I truly wanted any of the things I purchased. I’ve heard that Asians tend to be a relatively more materialistic group of people, and I can definitely see myself in that camp. I suppose if one finds God and spurns his or her materialistic values, then it would be a more cost-effective way of living. But then, you wouldn’t be able to have all the cool things. I don’t know if I can do that, to be honest. I genuinely value things: I am an artist after all.
But as an academic (i.e. someone with a doctorate), I think the ultimate next challenge would be to start making money. Teaching in and of itself is not that difficult, but starting a company and having it stay solvent is. I’ve been on social media, for instance, for almost 8 years in a professional sense, and I’ve still not managed to crack 600 followers on Instagram. To be fair, I don’t consider myself an influencer and Instagram tends to be the most difficult of the social media platforms to make it on. The true artists on there have to go through ridiculous lengths for just a few measly follows. I think YouTube is a little easier–there’s just something about filming…
Making money is the ultimate mark of achievement in our capitalistic society. I didn’t go into medicine for the money, even though there’s a lot of money to be made there–the ethics of which I won’t entertain here partly because I don’t really understand it. Overall, being financially literate and stable is a critical part of being a functioning member of society. It’s my next step.
The Ivory Tower 
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