A lot of people seem to think that being rich is so important. A lot of parents advice their children to choose majors which will produce a lot of money. The parents are not wrong because they think about their children's happiness in the future. They do not want their children to live in poverty. A lot of people think that having their own business is better than working under someone. As I may not have working experience yet, I look at this problem ideally. I think that being rich does not mean being happy, and having his/her own business does not mean that one would be wealthier.
One who is rich does not mean that he/she is happy. He/she can have a lot of money to spend, but he/she has no friends. Rich people, although not all of them, tend to have 'friends' who are their business partners but not real friends. These are people who care about the friendship only if the friendship has economic values. Once one is broke, he/she would lose these 'friends'. I cannot imagine how someone is going to survive without any friends.
In addition to not having a lot of friends, one would have some kind of a monotonic life. My brother and I agree that "being a researcher, [one] will never know what [he/she] will find out tomorrow, but being a businessman, [one] will always know that what [he/she] will only get is money" (Soewondo Brothers, 2010). Although a lot of people have exciting and bumpy business lives, all they would get at the end is money. If one already has a lot of money, billions and billions of dollars, what will they do with those money? He/she keeps working and working, but he/she already has more than enough money to live a very enjoyable life. Then, he/she might reach a point where everything seems to be monotonous(waking up, working, eating, sleeping, and repeat them all over again).
Middle class people who are working with other people can be happy even though they do not have a lot of money. Some people are happy when they have family, friends, and a job they like. For example, a researcher is happy although he or she does not have much money. He/she works excitingly, constantly being anxious of what will he/she get in the experiments. Another example is the workers at a non-profit organization with just decent salary. They work by helping other people in their lives, and they are happy just by helping other people. Even though they work under and with other people, they are happy.
The lives of researchers and workers at non-profit organizations are full of surprises. The researchers may make new discoveries which are exciting for them, and the workers may happily cry when the people they help have become successful. The researchers and the workers feel glad that they have helped other people to advance to the next level either in their technological side or their personal life's side.
In conclusion, rich people do not always mean happy people. Being happy loosely depends on each individual's way of defining happiness. Some people are happy by having a monotonous job with high salary, but some other people are happy just by having an exciting job with decent salary. Each side offers its own advantages and disadvantages.
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