Of course you want to make more. Of course you want to be secure. Of course you want to be paid well, be able to afford nice things, be able to take care of your family, even spoil them a little.

You want to be rich…who doesn’t?

That’s why we work hard. That’s why we fight hard. That’s why we have been and want to continue to be successful, professionally and financially.

But as we chase wealth, we often forget that we are rich. We talked recently about how Mark Twain—who chased money his whole career—was devastated when his daughter tragically died while he was on an international lecture tour. He never forgave himself for not being there when it happened. As author Ron Chernow writes in his epic biography Mark Twain (available at The Painted Porch—and check out our Daily Stoic podcast episode with Chernow here), movingly, Twain “compared [his daughter] to a bank treasure whose value he had not recognized until it vanished in the night.” Twain told a friend, “The bank is broken, my fortune is gone, I am a pauper.”

Twain didn’t understand, as he moved from one scheme to the next, one big project and luxury item to the next, that he already had everything he needed. He had something priceless…which he ignored in favor of something much less important and meaningful.

And he’s not the only one to do that—we all do. We say we’re ‘doing this for our family,’ and yet what does our work take us away from, require us to be apart from? Our family. In chasing riches, we ignore the riches right here, right now, in front of us.

What an impoverishing thing.