The biggest thumb rule of Money Intelligence is that like oil and water, emotions and money just do not mix if you want to be effective. So, no matter what type or level of emotions is being hurled at you – pity for a down on luck employee or the promise of an intimate dinner by a potential client, do not ever mix monetary decision making with emotions. For example, if your employee is indeed in dire straits, see what help can be given as part of company policy. Again if you find a potential client attractive, focus first on the deal and only after the ink on it has dried, wonder about asking her out. The bottom line is that money decisions have to be taken professionally without letting yourself be swayed by emotions or without letting them appeal to your feelings.

Money has to be separated from emotions even when the latter are your own. Psychologists have found that spending money on indulgences like a sexy pair of heels or a shiny Rolex activates the reward system in the brain and triggers the release of dopamine, the feel-good hormone. These responses lead to the well recognized pleasurable feelings that you get upon shopping for things that you don’t need. But here it is important that you learn to channel your emotions the Mahatman way. By all means, it is is good to spend, as opposed to the practice of saving – but do not spend on leisure and passive entertainment. If you are very rich but are spending on jewellery, private jets, luxury yachts, booze binge, paid sex and so on, you are not on the path to great wealth – it is likelier that you have a fat belly, cardiac conditions – in other words, lacking in Great Health. It is also possible that you are lacking in Great Wisdom since mindless consumption can make you prone to vanity, temper tantrum, belittling or even hurting others. So, spend money by all means but do it to achieve greatness like buying self-improvement books to read, taking a gym membership, signing yourself up for a wellness retreat, and so on.

Money Intelligence is not slogging for money but planning your work and finances in such a way so that you can make your money work for you. Something similar is explained by Robert Kiyosaki in  Rich Dad Poor Dad. In this book, Kiyosaki differentiates between liabilities and assets and based on this, he divides Dads, in other words people, into Rich and Poor. The latter are those who accumulate liabilities like houses and fast cars and think that buying all these means being rich. What they don’t realize is that these are really liabilities which make you work increasing number of hours to pay for them or push you deeper into the debt trap. The Rich people are those who use money to buy assets like bonds, shares, businesses so that eventually these will make the money for them.

But Mahatman goes further and says that don’t even work for money. By all means money is important to pay your bills and assure you a decent standard of living but beyond that work to attain personal mastery. Work to learn the job and get so good at it that instead of you running after money, big bucks will actually follow you wherever you go.

More than three decades of working has led me to this crucial insight – focus on the money and not on the people. I have presided over many many hirings and firings, heard all sorts of sob stories, and on occasions, even punished for being too trusting. I tell you once and for all – people are just not worth your time, effort and certainly not worth your resources. People don’t care about how much you love and respect them – if they get an opportunity, they will still take your money and run. So focus on the monetary decision that is to be made by isolating it from the people concerned – keep the nitty gritties of your gains, losses, investments and returns in sharp focus while letting the personalities involved, blur in the background.

For that –  Use whatever means necessary; Your work and your goal is the focus – all else is epiphenomena.

Generic life experience tells me that if you focus on work, you are best equipped to avoid emotional pitfalls – love and respect. Only when you deal with money professionally, you will set yourself up for the speediest progress in life, for the surest way to achieve your goals. Money Intelligence is thus an essential aspect of Self – Actualization.