Read a 16 year old's philosophy on life. Does anybody agree? Or is it just me ?

Good. I'm glad you aren't asking those questions. You are ahead of the game. I'd have to say that you may be right about the money part also, and disagree with the other post. Motivations for a promotion can be from something other than money. You can be motivated just by the idea of excelling in your work place and doing well in life, etc. Thinking only about the money usually leads to much more suffering because people often don't get that promotion and end up beating themselves over it. They often don't need that money. It's usually wasted on more junk. (Just an interesting fact: Did you know that the self-storage industry makes more money than the movie industry? Yep that's how much junk we acquire and don't actually need paid for with the money that we thought we really needed.)