Vivaldi Died A Pauper – Will You?

Do you remember the great composer Antonio Vivaldi?

He was epic.  He wrote The Four Seasons, a masterwork you hear all the time.  It never gets old.  

In fact, you might want to fire up that song while you read the rest of this post.  Here you go:

Vivaldi Died A Pauper – Despite His Gifts To The World

So here’s the thing.  Did you know Vivaldi died totally impoverished?  

Here’s what Wikipedia says:

“Like many composers of the time, Vivaldi faced financial difficulties in his later years.  His compositions were no longer held in such high esteem as they once had been in Venice; changing musical tastes quickly made them outmoded.  In response, Vivaldi chose to sell off sizeable numbers of his manuscripts at paltry prices….”

“Soon afterwards, Vivaldi became impoverished and died during the night of 27/28 July 1741, aged 63 … in a house owned by the widow of a Viennese saddlemaker.  On 28 July, Vivaldi was buried in a simple grave in a burial ground that was owned by the public hospital fund. “

It’s sort of a shocker, no?  All that talent, all that effort, all that beauty and value created.   Yet the man really struggled financially in his life.

Value And Money – A Tenuous Relationship At Best….

It makes you think.  You may be creating tremendous value for the world even if you aren’t getting a lot of money for your efforts.  Who is doing more for their community?  A competent emergency room nurse or a professional poker player (or should I say hedge fund manager)?  Yet we know who makes the loot.

There are several lessons to be learned from this.  First, hard work and creating something that has value do not necessarily translate into money or wealth.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.  

Second, if you want to make a healthy financial return on your time and effort, you need to think strategically.  Which institutions advance the cause?  What careers?  How can you leverage your unique skills and gifts best?