J. Paul Getty: Money ain't honey, but it sure is sticky

According to Jesus, it’s harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.  From the sorry sound of John Paul Getty’s voluminous commentary, it seems equally hard for a rich man to remain here on earth.

First off, you never really know who your friends are.  Would they still seem so fond of you if the many zeros on your billion-dollar credit statement were suddenly reduced to one?  Secondly, even dining out becomes a chore.  That’s because the often-inflated check is always handed to the alleged “big spender.”  Finally, there are all those requests for help to contend with.  Can’t people just understand that having a thousand (or million) times more than average is still no guarantee that there’s enough to go around…

Such were oft-repeated complaints of this richest man of his day.  However, there must have been something to this “rich” stuff because Getty sure did lay up those earthly treasures.  While bemoaning that “a billion dollars isn’t worth what it used to be,” he still found ways to squeeze each greenback until it turned gold.  One major way was to make business the top priority of his life (which negatively impacted each of his five marriages).  One wife was quoted as saying that business was Getty’s first love.  Getty himself said: 

A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure.

Like Benjamin Franklin (another self-made tycoon), Getty believed that “a penny saved is a penny earned.”  He would wait on reduced-fee lines, and would pride himself upon washing his own socks.  Also like Franklin, Getty gave plenty of advice.  Since misery loves company, most of it concerned “how to be rich.”  For those who weren’t already rich, he offered this fail-safe formula:  Rise early.  Work hard.  Strike oil.

And then what?

Getty died of a heart attack at the age of 83.  All of his money (and preoccupation with health foods) couldn’t prevent that.  Hopefully, some of that cherished oil greased the needle’s eye just enough to allow him to slip through.

Resources

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1215.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Getty

Copyright December 15, 2010 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved