Wealthy people have many hobbies to distract themselves, says asset manager Christian Freiherr von Bechtolsheim. Getty Images / 3alexd, Sensvector, Creative Crop, PhotoTalk / FOCAM AG / Collage: Dominik Schmitt
Christian Freiherr von Bechtolsheim is an asset manager and knows the world of successful and wealthy people.
He thinks: The more successful a person is, the more he thinks about the meaning of life and happiness.
Bechtolsheim says that allowing oneself to be consumed by ambition is a phenomenon that can often be found in such circles.
Personally, in many encounters with successful and economically prosperous people, I have got the impression that the further one climbs the pyramid of wealth and social recognition, the more one thinks about the meaning of life.
As long as the head is occupied with the struggle for daily bread, one often does not remain confronted with this thought. Very successful managers or entrepreneurs of the first generation have found various methods to distract themselves. Whether sports, yoga, meditation or collecting art. Everything is done with the utmost meticulousness and with a lot of seriousness.
You want to be successful not only in business but also in your personal life.
Christian Freiherr von Bechtolsheim
One of the most successful German consultants, now a very wealthy man himself, still tries to outdo his colleagues, who are often 30 or 40 years his junior, at races in Kitzbühel. Often he still succeeds.
The hobbies of rich and successful people
Being consumed by ambition, wanting to prove something, to counteract the decay and thus to elevate oneself to a monument, that is a phenomenon that we often find in such circles. Body cult and willingness to fight: You don’t just want to be successful in business, but also in your private life.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates playing tennis. picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS | Halden Krog
In the generation of those with well-earned inherited fortunes, there are often hunters, tennis and bridge players, yachtsmen, and almost always cultural interests. The hobby is no longer taken that seriously, unless it is a lifework foundation or an art collection. A significant point should be made here: whether one owns the largest David Hockney collection in the world or one of the most important collections of Renaissance hand drawings. The claim has no limits.
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If a family has passed through even more generations, the old, actually positively connoted, aristocratically lived concept of dilettantism awakens. Not being particularly good at anything, or at least accepting it, but being able to participate everywhere, whether golf or bridge, horseback riding or hunting, skiing, even taking a longer lunch break now and then.
This type usually only comes to light in families that have belonged to one another for generations. The purpose is to be a sought-after partner everywhere, to be able to complement groups of friends, whether in sports or card games, to give yourself and others a little pleasure. Ultimately, it serves to pass the time.
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But all this can only serve for a certain time to drive away thoughts about the meaning of life. Being happy in a family, watching the kids grow up. In many cases, this happiness is given far too little attention or value, but even this happiness can give way to a great emptiness in the abandoned family home after the children have moved away.
Personally, the only thing that helps me here is a deeply rooted religiosity. Without spirituality I lack a dimension that would be able to permeate everything and even influence everyday life up to and including business dealings. When I look at my own path, it has been a long process.
Christian Freiherr von Bechtolsheim manages the billions of Germany’s richest families. FOCAM AG
It took me many years to get used to an ethic of conviction that was deeply rooted in Christianity. When I think of my earlier life as a longtime bachelor or my professional beginnings, I still blush at some things.
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I wish that my children grow up to be believers, empathetic and passionate people. If this succeeded, it would be the most valuable legacy of a parental home. With such a metaphysical foundation, even the most difficult times and hardships can be overcome. The Jewish psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankel writes: “He who has a why to live for, can bare almost any how.”
*Christian Freiherr von Bechtolsheim is a founding partner of Focam AG. He manages large fortunes of well-known entrepreneurial families and foundations. He is also co-author of the book “Wealth Means Responsibility”.