Needless¹ to say, money is not very important, but very very important.

Most of us have dreams about the future, dreams of having a good job and making much money. Surely someone has thought at times “If only I had a lot of money, I could be the happiest person in the world.” In fact it’s the main mistake that people make about money.

However, is money the road to happiness? Not really! Many people work every day, work overtime², work weekends to make a lot of money. Are they happy? No. They are too busy making money. Meanwhile, their personal lives, if they have any, fall apart. They have no time to form or to maintain friendship. They even lose the abilities to relax and to enjoy themselves. Enjoying means taking things, taking time to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, to feel. They do not take time to do this. They say: “I’ll do it when I have enough money to retire” then they find that it is too late.

Why we usually make such a mistake and even more mistakes? Activists³ say it is because of money itself. They think money has changed many things. For example, they think money has changed our way to measure someone’s value in the society. They even regard money as the source of evil. Also, they hate money, but they are wrong, completely wrong.

In my opinion, it is unfair to money. Money is a tool. Well, there’s no denying that we do something harmful with money. But we can’t say money is the source of evil. Just like a hammer, we can use a hammer to kill someone, but can we say a hammer is a devil? It is the same with money.

Money is neither good nor bad itself. It is a mirror, a perfect and important mirror, and a mirror that reflects both the darkness and the brilliance⁴ of humanity⁵. In other words, all depend on us.

So, my fellow students, ladies and gentlemen in the future, ask not what we can do for money, ask what money can do for us, ask what money can do to show the brilliance of humanity. Because, we have the future; we are the future.