Can’t Buy Me Love
I’m sure you know the song. Even if you don’t know the song, you know the phrase. What can’t buy you love?
‘Money’ of course.
The Beatles popularized this expression in their 1964 hit, “Can’t Buy Me Love”. “I don’t care too much for money, ‘cause money can’t buy me love.” The song was written by Paul McCartney.
The single had over 2,000,000 international advance orders. The song debuted on the Billboard Charts at the #27 position and then jumped the next week to the #1 position. No other single in the history of the Billboard Charts had jumped from a position over #20 to the #1 spot in one week.
“Can’t Buy Me Love” was the third consecutive #1 single for the Beatles, following up on the smash hits “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, and “She Loves You”. In fact, for the week of April 4th 1964 the Beatles held all top 5 spots on the pop charts: 1. “Can’t Buy Me Love”. 2. “Twist and Shout”. 3. “She Loves You”. 4. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. 5. “Please Please Me”.
In 1994 McCartney said this about the song,
“The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well, but they won’t buy me what I really want.”
The Beatles are widely considered one of the greatest bands the world has ever seen. Certainly the Beatles are perceived as one the most influential bands in modern history. They experienced the greatest success this world has to offer.
And yet, McCartney says that material possessions are all well and good, but they won’t buy him what he really wants – love.
Money is a great asset, but it can’t buy you everything. One could argue that money cannot buy you those things that are truly important. Here is a partial list of some important things that money can’t buy:
- Character
- Manners
- Morals
- Common Sense
- Trust
- Class
- Respect
- Patience
- Integrity
- Humility
- Love
- Happiness
I saw a sign on a yacht that was for sale. “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you this boat and that’s pretty close.”
I believe money can’t buy happiness, but many people and leaders seem to believe that it can. Sadly, they can end up sacrificing those things of true value in their lives to obtain money, which in and of itself has no lasting value.
Have you ever met someone in person, or through the media, who is wealthy, but devoid of character, morals, manners, class, common sense, and integrity? Do you find those people attractive and worthy of your respect? I would guess that you don’t.
Unfortunately the world is full of lonely, unhappy, wealthy people.
So, if money can’t buy these things like love, happiness, respect, integrity, class, common sense and the like, what can?
Hmm, great question.
I would like to suggest at the foundation of all of this is… character. And at the foundation of character is the belief that ‘it’s not all about me’ – there is an “other’s-centeredness” at the root of character. And, at the root of being selfless, is humility.
Humility enables us to recognize that life is not all about me. Humility enables us to be selfless – to care for the needs of others. Humility enables us to be empathetic. Humility enables us to see there is more that we don’t know than we know, and therefore, we pursue personal growth on all fronts.
If humility enables us to empathize and recognize the needs of others, we can then choose to give to others. We can understand that we are meant to be spent for the benefit of others. As we live and lead in a fashion that contributes to the betterment of other people’s lives, we find ourselves growing in favour, influence, respect, common sense, patience, trust, manners and the like – we even begin to grow in happiness and love.
I’d like to suggest that character rooted in humility and selflessness enables us to love and lead others well. And leaders who have built character rooted in humility and selflessness lead well and are beloved by others.
