The real value of making money isn't nicer service or status—it's freedom: freedom from fear of not having food tomorrow, and freedom to know you're here because you chose to be.
Avishai reflects that money's true value is the freedom it grants—both from fear of scarcity and to be somewhere entirely by choice, which he says fuels total commitment. ✦ AI generated
Avishai · 20VC · 2026-07-13 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 50:43
“How did making money change you as a leader there?”
money give you one thing beyond everything else. Okay? And that's freedom. Okay? Freedom from fear that you won't have food tomorrow, right? And then freedom also to know that you are here because you've chosen to be here, right?
verbatim transcript · starts at 50:43
50:43right? And because service has nothing to do with how much you pay. Service in Italy is something to do with the person that want to save you or not. The way I look at it, okay, that's my personal opinion is that money give you one thing beyond everything else. Okay? And that's freedom. Okay? Freedom from fear that you won't have food tomorrow, right? And then freedom also to know that you are
51:04here because you've chosen to be here, right? Because I can always and you can always said, you know what, I want to be in Costa Rica on the beach. I want to be in Brazil, you know, dancing the carnival. I and or I can change completely what I'm doing and you have the ability to do it. You don't have to wake up every day in the morning go to
51:23work that work that you don't like and be just to maintain and have food. I mean that is the number one value you get from having enough money or a lot of money right is that freedom and that knowledge that I'm here because I've chosen to be here. There's no other reason except that. I think that's for me at least is is is the freedom to understand that if I'm here, I need to
51:47be fully committed to what I'm doing because I've chosen to be here. Nobody made me. There's nobody, no reason except me choosing, okay, to be here, do be the sea of wig, see the stock rushing like that, see other thing happening, you know, all the things. I've chosen to be in the middle of that. And that's I think is tremendous amount of power. What would you say to someone who wants
52:08to build resilience for a [ __ ] storm that's about to come? Like you said that, dude. I mean, the pressure, the [ __ ] headlines, the stock crashing, the this, the just like hit, hit, hit. And like, what would you advise me or someone listening who wants to learn how to be resilient for the hits that are going to come? I I think that the first thing to to
52:32accept is that it will happen because we tend to think that you know if yesterday was easy the day before was easy then tomorrow will be easy. That's not how life works right. You never know when the next storm's coming from you never know COVID arrives you never know you know war arrives or you never know when the stock market crash you never know and it will happen for sure 100%