*This article is brought to you by Global Leaders in Wealth Creation Mastermind Group
By Ilze Alberts*Â
Wealth is defined as an abundance of valuable possessions or money, and a plentiful supply of a particular desirable thing. Ilze Alberts, psychologist and life strategist, believes that this is a very limited definition of this concept.
In her book Passing the Torch published by Wiley and Bloomberg, Ilze explains that wealth is much more than money or things. “A family that is truly wealthy demonstrates certain characteristics. For a family to be considered a high nett worth unit, there is no higher value in the balance sheet than human capital.”
According to Ilze, the following attributes make a family truly wealthy:
- The talents, personalities, and genius of each family member. Each individual family member is an asset (and a liability) and each family member is a valuable source of knowledge, a potential contribution, and an inherent value because of the unique individuality.
- The family’s story. Every family has an origin and a history. The narrative of every family is unique, playing an important role in the development of society worldwide. The choices and decisions of your previous generations have a direct impact on your life right now. You come from their choices, decisions, and actions. Your choices, decisions, and actions will equally have an impact on the next generations for years, decades, centuries, millenniums.
- The mental abilities and exposure to education. Growing up in a family with the financial means to afford excellent education contributes to the advancement of the mental capital of the family. The different life experiences, exposure to global experiences through travel, and exposure to knowledge all contribute to wealth of the family’s mental capital.
- Emotional intelligence of the family. Families with exposure to wealth have more opportunities to develop their emotional intelligence simply because they can afford to pay for mental health services, personal life coaches, and programs and seminars that teach emotional intelligence. Money does not buy happiness, but money can buy many opportunities for self-development, empowerment, and emotional intelligence.
- Health and vitality. The more the members of a family feel of meaning in their lives, the higher the value they place on health and vitality, because the body is treated as the vehicle to take extraordinary service to the world.
- Social network and interactions. Family members build a network over their lifetimes. Like attracts like and the quality of friendships and social networks is a reflection of the endearing characteristics of the family. The lack of quality friendships equally reflects the lack of the family to build endearing friendships with significant people outside of the family bonds.
- A family’s financial wealth. Family wealth is built by a man (husband, father) or a woman (wife, mother) or by a man and a woman (husband, father and wife, mother) who perceive a big void in their financial well-being and therefore in the financial well-being of their family. This big void acts as the driving force and intrinsic motivation to build wealth for the family. The void, or absence of financial means, becomes the fuel in the family-wealth engine.
Says Ilze, “Acquiring knowledge, understanding human behavior, and being financially skilled and wise will be the three most important influences I can have on the next generation’s lives.”
What legacy do you want to leave?
Where is your family lacking when it comes to creating true wealth?
Get your copy of the book, Passing the Torch – Preserving Family Wealth Beyond the Third Generation, available in South Africa, Passing the torch, Bella Vida and AMAZON (hardcopy or kindle edition.)
- Ilze Alberts is a Psychologist and Human Behavioural Specialist and she is known for her skills in mentoring leaders in families and businesses. She is an accomplished international speaker and author. You can email her: [email protected].
