Sam Polk's For the Love of Money

Money is the key to power. That’s why the wealthy have access to luxuries the rest of us can only dream of one day having.

While many of us are struggling just to make ends meet, we see the wealthy living their carefree luxurious lives and we can’t help but feel envious. Some of us aspire to become rich like them, thinking that money will be the solution to all our problems, bringing us a lifetime of happiness. Sam Polk was one of those people.

Growing up, Polk recalls how miserable his family was because of their financial struggles. His father — who was an aspiring screenwriter when Polk was a kid — would always talk about how hitting the jackpot would fix everything. Listening to the way his father talked about the good life, Polk knew that his ultimate lifelong dream was to become rich.

While money does solve most problems —  such as living costs and debts— it does not solve everything, and it certainly doesn’t buy happiness.                   

In his memoir, For the Love of Money, Polk tells readers how he made his way to Wall Street and became a millionaire, and how achieving his lifelong dream did not satisfy him in the way that he thought it would.

All his life Polk wanted to fit in, and that was also one of the many reasons he wanted to be rich. If he had money, he could fit in with the men on Wall Street he had admired and looked up to. His success would also bring his family closer together and gain his father’s respect — or so he thought.

Once on Wall Street, Polk began to realize that most of the men he looked up to had nothing else really going for them, but their wealth. All they did was work, go to dinners, and party. Although all of that was fun at first, Polk soon became unhappy with the lifestyle and realized that his life lacked purpose. Sure he had the power to do whatever he wanted, but his relationship with his father was still strained and his job served no real purpose.

Polk went into Wall Street thinking that he had accomplished something great. Initially he thought he was being paid to understand the world, but later, he came to see it as merely being paid to judge the world and make his bets. He loved the money, but not the lifestyle it had brought him, or how he earned it.

When Polk left Wall Street he was told by numerous colleagues and friends that he was making a mistake and that if he stayed he could be earning way more in just a few years; but Polk had had enough. If all he was doing was working toward a bigger check, then what kind of person was he? He already had enough money to do whatever he wanted to do. Now what he really needed was to give his life purpose.

A few years after leaving Wall Street Polk founded Groceryships, a nonprofit based in Los Angeles whose objective is to improve long-term health and wellness in low-income communities by creating a network of educational support groups and enhancing access to healthy, unprocessed foods.

What Polk’s story teaches us is that though money is important, money alone doesn’t make you a successful person. It’s what you do to earn that money and how you contribute to this world that makes you truly successful.  


For a copy of the book visit: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Money-Memoir-Sam-Polk-ebook/dp/B0176M3XK8

For more information on Sam Polk visit: http://sampolk.me 

Cliff Simon's Paris Nights

Cliff Simon’s memoir Paris Nights, tells the story of the beginnings of Simon’s journey toward stardom. His big stepping stone and the basis of this book, is his year in Paris as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge.

The book starts off with Simon receiving a call from his friend Gavin about the Moulin Rouge needing a new dancer. Gavin asks Simon if he would like to fill the position, and at the drop of a hat, Simon sells his car for a one way ticket to Paris — a bold move to make, and just one of the many risks you’ll see Simon take throughout the book.

Simon arrives in Paris looking forward to his new job only to find out he still has to audition — something Gavin failed to mention — and if he doesn’t make it, well then he just gave up all he had in South Africa for nothing.

Obviously Simon makes the cut, but before we get to the part in the story where he auditions, the book takes us back to Simon’s childhood.

Simon grew up in a whites only neighborhood in South Africa during the apartheid — a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party, the governing party from 1948 through 1994. Eventually as the war between the National Party and the African National Congress (ANC) intensified, his family decided to move to London while Simon was in highschool.

In London, Simon focused a majority of his time training to become an Olympic swimmer, with the goal of making it to the 1984 Olympics. Although he says he could’ve easily made it to the Olympics, something was telling him he needed to go back to South Africa, even if that meant being drafted into their military.

And so Simon joined the military, which although hellish, he found that it was what he needed to put him in his place after living such a privileged life. It not only gave him a newfound perspective of what it meant to truly struggle, it also gave him the strength that would help him kick off his dancing career.

Flash forward to the audition and we begin our journey alongside Simon in his year at the Moulin Rouge, a journey that widened Simon’s outlook of the world as he is exposed to things he never really encountered in South Africa: homosexuality, interracial couples, mobsters and freedom.

The book is not only a good read for dancers and actors, but also for those interested in historical and cultural perspectives, seeing as the most interesting part of this book is his transition from a narrow-minded South Africa to a very liberal France, which opened many doors for him. Although the title may suggest that this is solely based on his career at Moulin Rouge, there is much more the book explores that makes it a highly suggestable read.

To purchase a copy of Paris Nights click on the link below:

https://www.amazon.com/Paris-Nights-Year-Moulin-Rouge-ebook/dp/B01ESBCHWA?ie=UTF8&btkr=1&ref_=dp-kindle-redirect