The True Meaning of Wealth

To accumulate wealth is an aspiration of many, and for whatever reason I, as awkward as it feels to admit publicly, am one of those many.

I didn’t grow up in poverty, nor did I associate with anyone who came from particular wealth, however I have faced a few tragic events which I largely attribute to why I’ve held fixed time-sensitive goals for myself since my teenage years. Although they are directly or somehow indirectly geared towards wealth creation for myself, I have come to understand that the drive behind them is my desire to see others succeed in their lives and in business, and not having to worry about my own position frees me to focus on that.

2016 has been a slap in the face, though.

Other than managing to seriously injure both my ankles consecutively in 2014 and the odd winter ills, I have always been a healthy individual, enjoying plenty of exercise, good food, and diligently getting my 8 hours. (OK, 7). This year has seen me face a minor medical misadventure, with a prescribed medication for what was a simple problem causing a secondary illness, a risk I was not made aware of and worse than the original now-cured problem, that is proving tough to budge. My most valuable yet undervalued asset has gone walkabout.

Nine months into the journey, I find myself writing this article between responding to e-mails and other work, cell phone at the ready, as I sit at the specialist medical centre yet again, blowing into a diagnostic machine every fifteen minutes. I might be an employee, but I treat our business like it’s my own (no spending money on fancy pens or Post-It notes around here, thank you very much) and no doubt that is what has afforded me the trust and understanding from our director to keep things ticking along despite having to do a lot of remote work. It’s some consolation for my ability to carry out my work to the level that I consistently expect myself to be able to being somewhat compromised.

It is no secret that good health underpins peak physical and mental performance and therefore the majority of our pursuits, so I have been truly startled at how this experience has exposed a thorough lack of appreciation for my otherwise good health and the intrinsic role it plays in reaching one's goals, big or small. Although the value of our health is impressed upon us throughout our lives, for me it seems I had to learn by doing. To you reading this, I hope you don't have to.

Nothing will ever budge those aspirations that have been so long ingrained in me but when my good health returns, the celebratory toasts I make with family, friends, and the amazing Credit One team who has held it all together this year will be to what I now understand is the true meaning of wealth: our health.

Lani Fogelberg is the New Zealand Manager of Credit One, a finance brokerage firm that originated from a humble office on Brisbane's Southside over 15 years ago and now services clients from multiple offices across Australia and New Zealand. She is based out of the Auckland Head office but frequently travels to Credit One's regional branches and other parts of the country to visit clients and business partners.