RWH031: Abundance w/ Michael Berg
We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network
Stig Brodersen
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2023
⏱️ 112 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, William Green speaks with Michael Berg, a great scholar & author who draws on the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah to explore how we can build lives that are truly richer, wiser, & happier. Here, Michael discusses how to extract more pleasure from whatever wealth you have; why sharing your money & time builds a greater sense of abundance; how to support your kids without sapping their desire to succeed; why deferred gratification is a superpower in business & life; how to handle challenges & adversity; & why the real key to happiness is appreciation.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:
00:00 - Intro
17:01 - Why Michael Berg sees no conflict between a spiritual life & material success.
20:17 - How our own actions open or close the “channels of abundance.”
22:38 - Why Sir John Templeton called tithing “the single best investment.”
32:44 - Why Charlie Munger reveres Maimonides, a 12th-century sage & doctor.
39:39 - How to extract more pleasure from whatever wealth we have.
48:37 - Why it’s helpful to recognize that we don’t truly own anything.
55:29 - How appreciation helps Howard Marks to stay humble & be happy.
59:00 - Why many rich people are surprisingly unhappy.
1:15:51 - How to build joyful abundance by sharing your time & money.
1:23:15 - How to help your kids without disempowering them.
1:26:14 - Why delayed gratification is essential in business, investing, & life.
1:35:45 - How Michael handles challenges & reframes adversity.
1:41:38 - Why his father, Rav Berg, taught that “consciousness is everything.”
Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.
BOOKS AND RESOURCES
- The Zohar translated by Michael Berg in 23 volumes
- Secrets of the Zohar & Becoming Like God by Michael Berg
- And You Shall Choose Life by Rav Yehuda Ashlag
- The Thought of Creation by Rav Yehuda Ashlag
- Nano: Technology of Mind Over Matter by Rav Berg
- The Kabbalah Centre website
- Spiritually Hungry podcast with Michael & Monica Berg
- William Green’s book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book
- William Green’s Twitter
NEW TO THE SHOW?
- Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs.
- Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here.
- Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool.
- Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services.
- Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets.
- Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts.
P.S The Investor’s Podcast Network is excited to launch a subreddit devoted to our fans in discussing financial markets, stock picks, questions for our hosts, and much more! Join our subreddit r/TheInvestorsPodcast today!
SPONSORS
- Invest in Bitcoin with confidence on River. It's the most secure way to buy Bitcoin with 100% full reserve custody and zero fees on recurring orders.
- If you’re aware you need to improve your bitcoin security but have been putting it off, Unchained Capital's Concierge Onboarding is a simple way to get started—sooner rather than later. Book your onboarding today and at checkout, get $50 off with the promo code FUNDAMENTALS.
- Experience real language learning for real conversations with Babbel. Get 55% off your Babbel subscription today.
- Reach the world’s largest audience with Linkedin, the place to B2B. Plus, enjoy a $100 credit on your next ad campaign!
- Get a customized solution for all of your KPIs in one efficient system with one source of truth. Download NetSuite’s popular KPI Checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance for free.
- Send, spend, and receive money around the world easily with Wise.
- Beat FOMO and move faster than the market with AlphaSense.
- Choose Toyota for your next vehicle - SUVs that are known for their reliability and longevity, making them a great investment. Plus, Toyotas now have more advanced technology than ever before, maximizing that investment with a comfortable and connected drive.
- Be confident that you’ll be small businessing at your best with support designed to help you reach your goals. Book an appointment with a TD Small Business Specialist today.
- Start, run, and grow your business without the struggle. Be in control of every sales channel with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period today.
- Return to the all-access world of the rich and powerful. Don’t miss new episodes of Billions streaming August 11th on the Paramount Plus with Showtime plan.
- Look good and feel good with True Classic's range of summer essentials, crafted with premium quality fabrics at an accessible price. Get 25% off today with the code WSB.
- Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors.
HELP US OUT!
Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm really excited to introduce today's guest, Michael Berg. |
| 0:07.6 | Michael is a brilliant scholar, writer and teacher who's thought very deeply about the |
| 0:12.3 | question of the heart of this podcast and also at the heart of my book. |
| 0:16.3 | Namely, how can you and I build lives that are truly richer, wiser and happier? |
| 0:21.7 | Michael comes at this question from an unusual angle that may not be particularly familiar |
| 0:25.9 | to you. |
| 0:26.9 | He teaches an ancient form of spiritual wisdom called Kabbalah, which goes back literally |
| 0:32.6 | thousands of years. |
| 0:34.5 | Until the last few decades, this was a secret wisdom. |
| 0:38.0 | Historically, it was so concealed that you weren't even allowed to study it unless you were |
| 0:42.7 | basically an exceptionally learned and pious man over the age of 40. |
| 0:47.4 | You also had to understand Hebrew and Aramaic so that you could read the most important |
| 0:51.9 | Kabbalistic books, including a monumental and incredibly profound book called The Zohar. |
| 0:59.2 | Michael grew up in a family that was totally immersed in this ancient wisdom, and he's |
| 1:04.0 | deeply committed to making it accessible to anyone it might help, regardless of that background. |
| 1:10.1 | When he was only 18 years old, he started translating the Zohar from Aramaic into English, |
| 1:16.0 | ultimately producing a 23 volume edition that took a decade to complete. |
| 1:22.1 | But what makes Michael extraordinary is that he's able to take this fairly esoteric knowledge |
| 1:27.9 | and make it extremely practical and applicable to our own day-to-day lives. |
| 1:33.8 | In this conversation, he talks about very pragmatic subjects like how you and I can extract |
| 1:39.4 | more pleasure from whatever else we have, whether we have a lot of money or not that much. |
| 1:44.8 | He talks about why so many rich people are surprisingly unsatisfied and unhappy. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Stig Brodersen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Stig Brodersen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.