My greatest lesson learned is from Andrew Carnegie and his essay: “The Gospel of Wealth”. In the essay, Carnegie stresses that wealth should not be passed on to the next generation and that we are to work for wealth ourselves. Individualism, property, and competition are natural laws that set up society as an environment that allows individuals to strive and gain wealth.  I am especially motivated by Carnegie’s view of life. He believed that life should be divided into 3 stages: pursuing an education, making money, and bettering society.  We pursue our education in hopes of landing a career through which we can achieve financial freedom and a sense of accomplishment. However, we often lose sight of the last stage: bettering society, as we set our goals in life. Without the purpose of bettering society, the continuance of accumulating wealth is meaningless. Money is good, but it is good because it can help us achieve things in this world.

Thus Andrew Carnegie’s quotation: “The man who dies rich dies disgraced”. Carnegie encourages us to redistribute our wealth back into society at the end of our lives. He himself donated all his wealth to universities and libraries in North America at the end of his life because he wanted to encourage the worthy to improve themselves. The Carnegie Community Centre and Carnegie library here in Vancouver are patrons of his donations.

Here’s what I learned from Andrew Carnegie’s : work hard, live humbly, and learn to serve the society.