Don't be evil

photo credit: hartlandmartin

Google’s motto is ‘don’t be evil’ and the company has built its code of practice around this guiding principle which aims to ensure that everything they do is ‘measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct.’ Many people think that money is somehow tainted, that there is something rather unsavory about it, and that the rich cannot also be the good.

Of course, there are lots of ways to make money, and many of them are decidedly evil. There are crude and violent ways of making money, like robbing a bank, blackmailing people or running protection rackets. People sell drugs, traffic in people, run prostitution rings and exploit people, usually the weak and vulnerable.

Then there are more subtle, but obviously dishonest ways of making money. I get dozens of e-mails each week telling me that I’ve won some lottery, or that a government agency is giving me millions of dollars, or that someone has left me money in their will. I guess people must fall for these scams or else they wouldn’t keep sending the e-mails.

I’m sure that most of us wouldn’t dream of doing these kind of things, but of course there are even more subtly dishonest ways to make money. Using legal loopholes to get out of paying tax, not owning up when you get given too much change, all kinds of little dodges and tricks we use to profit. We can tell ourselves ‘it’s not that bad – anyone would have done the same thing,’ and that’s probably true, but we still know that we have acted dishonestly, and it still leaves a bad association about money in our mind. And this is the problem.



Money is neither bad nor good. It’s just money. Like food, it is necessary and important, and if used properly it can help us to live a wonderful life. But if abused, it can destroy us. In an oft-misquoted passage, the Bible tells us that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’ (1 Timothy 6:10), and I think this means that an unhealthy grasping for money is likely to ruin us.

Money can and should be enjoyed, like food, sleep, sex, fresh air and all the other good things in life. There are lots of honest and good ways to make money and we should focus on these and enjoy the fruits of providing our time, energies and services. The most basic way of making honest money is to provide value, When you do this, the whole universe lines up behind you and you receive a reward commensurate with the value you give.

Whether it’s walking dogs, decorating someone’s front room or proving advice to Morgan Stanley (Tony Blair gets $1,000,000 a year for this, by the way), if you provide value, you should get paid. It’s important to do what you love, because then your ‘work’ will be effortless, and you should get paid for the outcome of your time, not just for your time, because then you can use the magical power of leverage.

For me, blogging is a perfect activity. I love writing and have been doing so since I was a child and through my blog I can use leverage and get paid by the outcome. I write articles that anyone can read for free, but I believe that if the posts contain something of value then it is perfectly right that I be paid for providing this value. My blog posts contain links to adverts, products and services. Readers can click on these and perhaps subscribe to the various products being offered. Readers can also make a donation to me directly. When I’ve written an article, it can be read and re-read an unlimited number of times, and this makes unlimited earnings possible.

Whatever you do, find out what you love. The key to real wealth is to find a way of doing this which also gives value to others, to be useful, to serve. When you find this, do it and don’t think of money as being evil or tainted. You can sleep at night, you can be open and honest with people, you have nothing to hide. Now that’s real wealth!

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