While I agree with the sentiment, the freedom provided by an exit (or alternately just a very profitable company) is certainly something that can make someone happy.
It isn't the 0's in the bank account, it's what they provide. It means you can work on bigger projects with more funding requirements. It means you don't ever have to worry about how the mortgage is getting paid next month, because you don't have one. It means you don't have to worry about how to get health care to take care or your aging parents, or how you are going to get your kids through college.
These are some of the biggest problems in life, and all of them go away with a big exit. Then you can spend your time focusing on the things that make you happy, which is probably for many of us building another company. The point is that it removes some stress and some worries, and that is a very good thing.
Agreed - the extra cash makes some basic problems go away. Once those hurdles are removed though, you realize they weren't hurdles at all - they were just part of being alive.
"basic problems" are an important thing to make go away.
Let me put that a different way from my personal experience.
Some things that money can buy can make you happy obviously. Of course if you feel like crap that day for any reason the fact that you have those things that money can buy won't change that.
Having money means importantly being able to avoid things that make you unhappy. Small living quarters. Bad food. No air conditioning. A car that breaks down.
Added: To name only a few things which vary in importance depending on the individual.
For people who don't really know anyone who's poor, it's hard to see that it's not all about iPads or even good cheese and air conditioning and square footage.
Broken teeth you can't afford to get treated. Family members with psychiatric disorders no one can afford to help (or, the available medicines cause side effects that make life completely miserable). Busted plumbing and busted roof you can't fix properly. Aging parent without necessary full time care, but you still have to have a job. Both you and your spouse having to work to support your kids, who you have to put in cheap daycare which they hate just so you can go to work. Living in a trashy, high-crime neighborhood. Having to drive four hours to get to a place which will give you birth control at an affordable price. Getting treated like dirt by a scumbag boss at a job you can't leave, for years. Getting turned down for interview after interview because of the heuristic that you must be bad at what you do if nobody else hired you. Fighting and stressing over money to the point of divorce, when just a little money could have smoothed it over. Actually worrying about how you are going to live when you cannot afford the place you are living. Having the scorn and disregard of most of society until the day you die.
Yes, there are alternate solutions and little consolations and some possible ways out, if you are in a developed country, if you are smart, if you are hard to discourage, if you are lucky.
But when a normal middle class income so easily makes these problems into implausible memories, it can be pretty insulting to hear smug sayings like "money doesn't buy happiness" from people who have decent secure income.
So to be a nice empathic middle-class person, don't say those things in public unless you are prepared to go full Buddhist (and put your money where your mouth is).
How about: "money does not buy happiness, but it can mitigate a whole lot of the misery associated with lack of money".
For an analogy - it's no more fun swimming in a 500 foot deep lake, than a 50 foot deep lake, but a 3 foot deep lake with rocks and waves is painful and dangerous and no fun.
The baseline of money that eliminates misery ( == "buys happiness") is that which takes a person from "really poor" to "modestly middle class".
I like that example. I use a similar analogy to that frequently. If you are in a room with a ceiling that is even a few inches over your head you don't have to stoop at all. It doesn't necessarily benefit you if the ceiling is 3 inches over your head or 10 inches or 10 feet (with respect to walking that is - add some room for up and down etc.) On the other hand things become tremendously difficult if the ceiling is even an 1/8 of an inch lower than it needs to be. In that case you have to stoop and you can't walk normally.
I'm fully aware that you have to cross a minimum threshold of income in order to not be affected by the cash infusion from a company sale. As I said in the post, most entrepreneurs are already richer than a large portion of the world simply because they have a computer and literacy.
"most entrepreneurs are already richer than a large portion of the world simply because they have a computer and literacy"
Ryan - seriously? There are plenty of people in this country that are living in difficult situations that have computers and can read. The fact that there are third world countries that are dirt poor with much greater suffering doesn't make someone in this country feel any better about what they have to endure.
"Having money means importantly being able to avoid things that make you unhappy."
I think this is the key point. Money by itself won't make you happy. But it can remove pain points that make you unhappy. The biggest example in my life is my parents healthcare. Currently they would like to be able to retire and move to where I live so we could spend more time together, but they can't afford to quit their jobs because they have had very bad health and they couldn't afford insurance on their own, and there is no way for a guy over 60 to move 8 hours and get a job paying close to what he makes in job he's been doing for 35 years. Starting over isn't really an option.
If I had a big exit this goes away and significantly and immediately improves my life in that I get to spend much more time with my family.
The most important thing money can buy you is independance and freedom. Some things where already mentioned. And this independance can make you happy. On the other hand, money can also take all freedom and independance away from your life. In this case you have become a misserable slave of your bank account.
But I can completely understand that selling the company you started you built from ground upcan also be kind of sad. And yes, in this case the money that helpfully comes along doesn't make you happy.
Congratuations to Ryan for a successfull exit anyway!
It isn't the 0's in the bank account, it's what they provide. It means you can work on bigger projects with more funding requirements. It means you don't ever have to worry about how the mortgage is getting paid next month, because you don't have one. It means you don't have to worry about how to get health care to take care or your aging parents, or how you are going to get your kids through college.
These are some of the biggest problems in life, and all of them go away with a big exit. Then you can spend your time focusing on the things that make you happy, which is probably for many of us building another company. The point is that it removes some stress and some worries, and that is a very good thing.