My Dad created or was involved with over 20 businesses in over 5 industries during his life time. He had a definition of money that you will not see – or at least I have not seen – in any economics or finance text book. Many have found this definition as freeing. I now share with you some of the the wisdom I grew up with.
“Money is anything that you HAVE (meaning possess, control, have access to, can do or create etc.) that you can exchange with someone else who has been persuaded that what you HAVE has sufficient value to exchange it for something that they HAVE that you have been persuaded has sufficient value to make that exchange.
That is all money is or ever has been, and many more things fit that delimitation that the currency that we carry around or we have in our bank accounts. That kind of money can be invented or created and expanded through powerful conversations that can be based on the past, the present or the future. It is unlimited in size and variety. it is limited only by the size and power of our imagination and our ability to engage others’ imaginations in that creation.”
– John Barnes