What do most people say on their deathbed? They don't say, 'I wish I'd made more money.' What they say is, 'I wish I'd spent more time with my family and done more for society or my community.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
No one on his deathbed ever said, I wish I had spent more time on my business.
I wish I could look back and say, 'OK here was a T.V. show or a movie that I thought was so perfect for me', or, 'I did such a good job that if I died tomorrow at least I could say I left that as my legacy.' But there isn't anything that falls into that category.
If you've made enough money where you're not worried about the rent or survival, you start asking yourself why you're on this planet. Your point is to do the most good you can before you die - well, I could do more good if I didn't die.
I realised how rich I had become and I asked myself, 'Do I really want to be the richest person in the cemetery?'
I've always thought that people who left a great deal of money in their will never enjoyed the great honor and privilege and heart-rendering feeling of giving to others during their lifetime, because they were too selfish to give to others while they were alive, so they made sure they were dead and couldn't use it anymore.
People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no: I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.
You live till you die, and that's the end of it. What good is your legacy when you are dead? I worry about being alive, selling work, having fun, moving and doing things when I am alive.
The usual complaint is, 'I have no other way of earning a living.' The harsh reply can be, 'Do you have to live?'
At the end of my life, is it better to say that I empowered people to make great stuff, or that I died with a net worth of $10 billion? Obviously I'm picking the former, although I would not mind both.
It is neccessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.