My youngest son, who is 6, wants to the French president when he grows up. I told him, being born in Paris, he can have that ambition. This made my first son feel a bit sad. He said, hmm, I could not be because I was born in India.

“When your brother becomes the president, he would change the laws, and then you can become the president too.” That sounded like a plan to him, and he went on to finish his dinner peacefully.

I also told them that I would teach them six steps to become famous and five more focused on becoming a great leader, for whatever ambition they hold.

The first lesson is that what anyone in the world wants can be broken down into just three things, health, wealth, and relationships. That’s all. Simplifying things to 3 fit neatly in human intelligence, more than three things start to become complicated.

They are currently in lesson 4, can tell them to me in any order at any time, and is very keen on learning the 5th. I am hesitating to teach it to them because it is dangerous and may not be necessary for a new world I imagine to create.

The point is, teaching him these things has got me thinking even more profoundly. Why do people pursue wealth at the expense of health and relationships? I recently had an aha moment that I would like to share.

Health and relationships work on averages, it does not accumulate, it is like building a sandcastle, it breaks away, and you have to make it again and again and keep at it. In contrast, wealth is not a natural phenomenon, it is a human construct, and unlike biological concepts, it accumulates and doubles if you are skilled enough.

This creates an illusion that you are creating something that will endure and possibly a better return on investment on your efforts.

What if we improve that concept, and everyone is allowed to keep the wealth accumulated over the last ten years? Everything beyond ten years expires.

This is how the money would have worked if it was a natural phenomenon, it would be a sandcastle. And perhaps also solve most of the world’s problems and create a better world.