超級富豪的簡單生活－人的時間和精力最重要

ZT：perspective seems to be increasingly common among today』s superwealthy — and even wealthy — who are looking for more lasting meaning in their lives beyond their possessions. I』m not saying they』re right or wrong or that possessions are inferior to other measures of wealth — people should use their wealth however they choose. Yet for all that, Mr. Berggruen』s personal downsizing may be a sign that the voluntary simplicity movement could be moving up the wealth ladder.

I』ve written about the voluntary simplicity movement in the past. In the words of the most influential book of the movement, 「[s]implicity means taking charge of lives that are too busy, too stressed, and too fragmented. Simplicity means cutting back on clutter, complications, and trivial distractions, both material and nonmaterial, and focusing on the essentials – whatever those may be for each of our unique lives.」

In other words, it』s a conscious effort to pare down and even minimize one』s obligations, one』s distractions, and one』s possessions in order to focus on the essentials and the things the person finds truly important.

It might be easy to hear that kind of talk from someone who is already financially restricted, at least in the sense that they』re not incredibly wealthy. It』s a philosophy that seeks to maximize the resources you already have – time and energy – and minimize other resources – money and possessions – so if you already are lacking in the money department, that philosophy can really hit home.

However, Nicolas Berggruen proves the point that even if you』re already in control of a lot of money and possessions, time and energy may still prove to be more important.

His life is practically possession free. He lives in a way that instead maximizes his time and energy and makes it possible for him to have a lot of experiences and devote his time to a lot of projects.

He lives in the most time and energy efficient housing available to him – hotel rooms. Because of his wealth, he can actually afford constant hotel visits, where someone else takes care of the tasks of cleaning and changing the sheets and so on. That choice basically eliminates the time he might have to devote to household tasks.

For most of us, that』s impossible, but we can minimize that time by living in a very small home or apartment where there simply isn』t that much room to clean up. It』s far faster to clean up an efficiency apartment, for example, than a multi-bedroom home.

He』s able to live in such a small space because he doesn』t have many possessions, and the ones he does have are well-made and he uses them to death. This Bloomberg article describes him as living out of a tote bag and wearing ragged clothes: 「Berggruen, 50, lives his whole life this way, always on the move, as he seeks out companies to buy from Berlin to Bangalore to Brisbane. For the past decade, the dual American and German citizen has had no fixed home address. He constantly roams the world on his Gulfstream IV jet, living out of five-star hotels. Most of the time, he carries only a small tote bag containing clothes and his BlackBerry. 『If you have things and if you are a perfectionist, which I am, you have to really tend to them, and it takes energy away from other things,』 says Berggruen, whose pink shirt, monogrammed with his initials in red on the pocket, is fraying at the cuffs and collar.」

First of all, he doesn』t own many possessions, period. He lives out of a rather small bag that contains a few electronic devices, some clothes, and presumably a few toiletries.

I』ve been thinking about this idea a lot. What would I do if I had to live out of my duffel bag? I』d probably put my laptop in there, my Kindle, and chargers for both. I』d probably have one set of nice clothes, along with two pairs of jeans and a few t-shirts, as well as undergarments and maybe one extra pair of shoes. I』d probably also have a notebook or two and some pens and a little bag of toiletries. I think I could be pretty happy with just those possessions – after all, I』d have very little to worry about besides them.

If Sarah and I both committed to that, we could actually have a very small house and be just fine.

Second, the possessions he does have are sturdy and well made, and he uses them until they fall apart. His clothes, for instance, are 「fraying at the cuffs and collar,」 but he』s still wearing them, likely until they tear. That means they』ve survived a lot of washings and a lot of use – he』s getting maximum value from those clothes.

And he』s a billionaire.

我雖然與富豪相去甚遠，同樣也與赤貧相去甚遠。是否等孩子們上大學后，我可以考慮過簡約的生活？

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