The most important thing is to teach your children: Is money more important, or is education for your children more important?
Normal parents know that money is certainly not as important as their children’s education, but in fact many parents value money far more than their children’s education. Some parents only think about making money, hoping to accumulate more money for their children and live a carefree life in the future. This is a completely wrong idea. If a child is virtuous, he will naturally be able to live and feed well in the future; if a child is ungrateful, he will not be able to keep the money he has left, and it will even harm him. As the saying goes, "You cannot be rich for more than three generations."
Lin Zexu has a famous saying: "If my descendants are like me, they will leave their money for something. If they are wise and rich, they will lose their aspirations; if their descendants are not as good as me, they will leave their money for nothing. If they are foolish and rich, they will increase their ambitions." "Lin Zexu made the truth very clear. If his descendants are as virtuous and talented as himself, then there is no need to leave money to him. He can also earn money with his own virtue and talent, so leave it to him. Too much money will weaken his will; if his descendants are mediocre, then there is no need to leave money to him. The more money you leave to him, it may encourage him to make more mistakes. Lin Zexu, the first person in modern China to open his eyes to the world, understood this clearly, and his methods of running a family and educating his children were praised by the world.
In today’s society, how many parents can treat money as rationally as Lin Zexu? Some powerful people are always trying to find ways to benefit their children, and even take risks for the sake of their children, and end up in jail. Many people work hard to make money, wishing that everything could be taken care of for their children. On the surface, parents are doing it for their children, but in reality they are hindering their children's growth. Isn't it? Protecting your children from wind and rain all your life means that your children will never have the opportunity to experience wind and rain. If you don't experience wind and rain, how can you see a rainbow?
Nie Yuntai, the grandson of Mr. Zeng Guofan, said in the book "The Law of Preserving Wealth", "As the saying goes: It is not difficult to get rich, but the most difficult is to keep it. I have lived in Shanghai for more than fifty years, and I have seen people who get rich. Many of them failed in less than five or ten years after getting rich, some failed in twenty or thirty years, and some were completely ruined in forty or fifty years. I remember that most of the wealthy people who interacted with my late father. Some were officials, some were in business, and they were all prominent for a while, but now most of them have withered away, and their families have declined. Some of them were squandered because their descendants were engaged in prostitution and not doing their jobs properly; some even have no trace of their descendants, roughly speaking. The wealthy people of fifty years ago have not lost all their wealth, and it is really rare for only one or two families out of a hundred to have children who can study, work hard, and make progress."
"Not only. This is the case in Shanghai, and it is the same in my hometown of Hunan. During the Tongzhi and Guangxu years of the Qing Dynasty, there were six or seven wealthy families in the Zhongxing era who were granted titles, twenty to thirty families who were governors and governors, and some who were lords of Tizhen. Most of the fifty or sixty families are now in decline; there are only a few civil servant families with little property left, and their descendants are relatively good as far as I am familiar with, such as Zeng, Zuo, Peng, and Li. The family is the official with the least money, and most of his descendants can read and serve the society with academics: among the great-grandchildren of Zeng Wenzhenggong (Zeng Guofan), six or seven have graduated from universities at home and abroad, and three have served as university professors; Several great-grandsons of Duke Zuo Wenxiang (Zuo Zongtang) are also famous for their scientific majors; some of the grandchildren of Duke Li Yongyi (Li Hongzhang) are university professors, and most of their great-grandsons are university graduates; Duke Peng Gang (Peng Yulin) There were descendants who were officials in Shanghai ten years ago. Those who had the right money at that time and had no savings to leave to their descendants were more talented and talented. Most of the descendants of the other ten families who had more civil servants had more money. They are all in depression; dozens of military attache families were richer than civil servants at that time, with some having one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand silver taels, and most of the descendants of each family have declined; those who can study and make progress are rarely heard of."
"My family has had a relationship with the major aristocratic families in the late Qing Dynasty and the Zhongxing era, either in Hunan or Huai, for generations, so we all know a little bit about the rise and fall of each family. As for the various civil and military families in Anhui, they used to be wealthy The wealth is far greater than that of the Hunan Army, but today it has withered and fallen, and it is unbearable to look back; it only lasted a few decades, and it was only passed down to the third generation, and it has all disappeared like floating clouds."
As soon as Mr. Nie Yuntai's "The Law of Preserving Wealth" was published, it became very popular. Even Mr. Liu Yazi took the trouble to cite an allusion from Zhang Dafu's "Plum Blossom Cottage Collection" about a bureaucrat in Western Shu in the Ming Dynasty who kept money. Let me strongly advocate the essence of "preserving wealth" in this book: "A benevolent person uses wealth to make a fortune, and an unkind person uses his body to make a fortune." In today's context, many flavors can really be read.
Nie Yuntai has two identities. One is the grandson of Zeng Guofan, and the other is the first president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and the vice president of the National Cotton Mills Federation since 1920. The former status gave the stories in his book a strong sense of life experience. Because of his family, Nie Yuntai had the opportunity to understand a group of prominent official families at the same time as his grandfather; and his status as the president of the General Chamber of Commerce made him A deeper understanding of wealth and educating future generations.
What children need most is education and companionship, not just money. There was such a little boy who was very smart and learned things quickly. Logically speaking, a child's eyes should be sparkling, but this little boy's eyes were dull and dull, without any trace of happiness, every day. Why? Because this child does not have a warm home, his parents are working in other places, and there are only grandparents at home, so the child usually does not get the love of his parents. According to his teacher, he remembers one time when he came to the teacher to ask for leave, saying that his mother was back and he wanted to go home to see her. Although he was used to being indifferent, the teacher could still clearly see the light in his eyes. The eyes are sparkling.
Later, his teacher decided to communicate with his parents. It was learned from his parents that they believed that they only went out to make money for the sake of their children, and that the money was earned for their children. Moreover, parents feel that they cannot spend time with their children, so they try their best to satisfy their children financially to make up for their spiritual shortcomings. The teacher asked his parents if they were prepared to earn all the money their children would need throughout their lives, but the parents remained silent. The teacher asked again, what if one day they are too old to earn money and the child spends all the money, what will the child do? The parents remain silent.
After all, there are still problems in this world that money cannot solve. No matter how much money you make for your children, it is better to teach them the ability to live and be a good person. In fact, situations like this boy’s are still very common today. Parents should understand that raising children is not simply about feeding and clothing them. If this is the case, even animals can do it. As Gorky said: Just loving children is something a hen can do, but being good at educating them is a great undertaking.
Being a good person is more important than money. If you don’t know how to be a good person, you can neither earn nor keep money. Without money, the child may be running around for a living, without the conditions to break the law or discipline; but with money, the child may fail faster and more miserably if he does not know how to behave!
As parents, educating children well is fundamental. Neglecting education and working hard to make money is undoubtedly a waste of time and money.