EnTrends

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

(Lessons in Coping From the Very Rich)

by Donna Schwartz Mills

A new illness is spreading among the occupants of those multi-million dollar mansions in Silicon Valley. It's a malaise so insidious that
the Los Angeles Times recently devoted front page space to it: "Sudden Wealth Syndrome."

The problem is so pervasive in the Valley that a couple of Bay Area psychiatrists founded the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute to
help their mega-wealthy clients deal with their growing feelings of isolation and guilt. They complain that it's hard to spend time with old
friends who envy their success and that living in luxury gets old after a while. Many of them are paralyzed by fears that they will lose it
all as quickly as it was gained.

UCLA Medical School professor David Wellisch told the Times that any life-altering change can trigger an emotional crisis -- even good
ones, like making the Forbes list overnight.

"It's a crisis of dislocation," said Wellisch. "The dislocation is from former situations, surroundings, friends

and your idea of yourself."

These poor little rich folks know they're not likely to get much sympathy from the rest of us working slobs who would gladly trade
places with them. I know that I am not stepping back from any of my entrepreneurial activities lest I start feeling dislocated. If I am lucky
enough to hit that kind of a jackpot, my budget will surely allow me to buy all the psychiatric help I need!

Still, I am a big believer in being prepared. I like to have a game plan ready for any situation, including the

highly unlikely possibility that some media empire will pay me a fortune to buy my little ParentPreneur website.

So, when Oprah comes knocking and I sell out to her, am I going to buy a South Sea island and retire? That's not agood idea, according
to the psychiatrists inteviewed by theTimes.

"We live in a society that is very much governed by work," said Peter Goldbart of the Institute of Money, Meaning and Choices. "All of
a sudden, you wake up and you realize you don't have to work anymore. That's when people start becoming symptomatic."

The Times recounted the story of David Seuss, who founded Spinnaker Software in 1982 and sold it twelve years later for $200 million.
He retired at the age of 43 and spent the next two years being idly rich. Then, he went out and got himself a job. Today he runs a new
company and says it's a lot more satisfying the second time around.

Goldbart also advises clients with too-much-money problems to give some of it away, to charities and organizations that are meaningful
to them. This is advice that can do us all some good. Just a few years ago, a lot of press was given the fact the nation's growing
population of high-tech millionaires had a dismal record of philanthropy. Since then, Bill and Melinda Gates formed their foundation
which has given a whopping $20 billion away so far -- and many others are following suit.

So my long range plan for dealing with success is to keep on doing as I've been - continue working at the business I'm enjoying so much
- and give back to the community. It seems as if our grandparents' words of wisdom ring just as true in the 21st century as ever: money
does *not* buy happiness... the joy is not in getting there, but the journey... and it is better to give than to receive.

I think I can live with that.