Pimp Your Finances

I still remember when I opened up my first Nintendo many Christmases ago. It came with Duckhunt and Gyromite, but I spent all my time playing Super Mario Brothers.

Over the years, Mario has provided me with countless hours of entertainment and cartoon violence. Along the way, he’s also taught me a few things.

Here are 9 money lessons I’ve learned from playing Super Mario Brothers.

1. Don’t give up

Some of the most famous words in video game history are “Thank you Mario! But out princess is in another castle!”

If we had given up after level 1-4, or any of the next six times we were told that, our beloved Princess Peach would have never have been rescued.

The important things in life are worth fighting for.

2. The power of diversification

Mario has never been a one-trick pony. In addition to the traditional side scroller, he’s also been in a variety of games such as Donkey Kong, Punch Out!, Super Smash Bros., Dr. Mario, Mario Paint, Super Mario RPG (one of the most underrated SNES games), Paper Mario, Mario Kart (including versions for the SNES, 64, Game Cube, DS, and Wii), Mario Party, and a cavalcade of Mario-themed sports games.

The side-scrolling games have been huge hits for Nintendo. But by branching out, Mario has been able to stay relevant, and even increase his popularity by expanding horizontally (that is, to new audiences).

It’s worth noting that Mario has appeared in more than 200 games to date, selling at least 201 million units (source: Wikipedia).

3. The power of collaboration

By himself, Yoshi isn’t good for much of anything. He has awesome red sneakers, but without his symbiotic partner in crime, he’s just a dinosaur egg full of potential.

When Mario and Yoshi team up, they are greater than the sum of their individual parts. Mario serves as the brain, and Yoshi the brawn. It’s a lot like “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”. Yoshi can eat or jump on enemies at will, but not without Mario to direct him.

By specializing and combining their talents, Mario and Yoshi can accomplish much more than they ever could separately.

4. You have to have goals…money won’t bring you happiness

Money plays an integral part of the Mario legacy. In the early days, 100 coins could buy you an extra life. In the later versions, it still buys you that extra life, but it’s also responsible for keeping you alive. Coins refill your life points.

For this one, I’m going to go old-school and focus on the early days.

In Super Mario Brothers, it didn’t matter if you had 1 coin or 99. They didn’t buy you anything. The money itself couldn’t bring you fulfillment.

What it could do was extend your life – presumably bringing you more princess-saving happiness. Ending your game with 99 coins doesn’t do you a lick of good, but getting that 100th coin  brings you one life closer to rescuing your dream princess.

It’s not the money that matters – it resets to zero anyway. What really counts is that you can use money to follow your dreams.

5. Love is all you need

Mario is definitely a chivalrous character. From his debutin 1981, he’s almost always been trying to rescue his girl. He wasn’t distracted by money or power. He just wants a simple life with his Princess. Despite his incredible abilities, he only uses them when absolutely necessary, to save the one he loves.

6. Be prepared for emergencies

 This is one area where Mario was not prepared at first. His plans consisted of the following:

1) If big – jump on everyone

2) If little – jump on everyone

Outside of that, he didn’t have much of a plan for staying alive (at least in the early days). It took Mario almost 15 years before he realized that he should have a flexible emergency plan.  You should be prepared to deal with an extended period of misfortune. Coping with just one or two setbacks isn’t enough.

7. You gotta have a plan

If you had a Nintendo, you probably remember level 8-4 of Super Mario Brothers.

It was by far the trickiest board on the NES to date. It wasn’t just a question of how well you avoided enemies. You had to go through the right parts of the board in the right order.

Without a plan, you’d find yourself going in circles, if you got anywhere at all.

8. Beware of imposters

In 1992, a Mario impostor – Wario – started causing trouble. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. As recently as 2002, an odd metallic Mario-like character was spotted vandalizing the peaceful Isle Delfino. Mario was actually imprisoned for the fake-Mario’s crimes.

Luckily for Mario (and the Isle Delfino), Mario was up to the task of cleaning up the island.  However, we may not be as lucky as Mario.

There are plenty of people trying to steal our identities, but they probably won’t be so obvious as to wear a hat with the opposite of our name on it, or to walk around as a metallic version of us.

We’ve got to be on the lookout for people trying to steal our identities in secret.

9. Solid fundamentals never go out of style

The Mario platform games – like Super Mario Brothers, SMB 2, SMB3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy – have all been best sellers. Super Mario Brothers is actually still the #2 best selling video game of all time (behind only Wii Sports).

They didn’t make any big changes to the formula…just slight advances in graphics and processing along the way. That just goes to show that the best advice in life is timeless.

Mario may be easy to dismiss because of his stereotypical appearance, but he’s one of the hardest working and devoted characters that we have in modern fiction. We could all learn a lesson with him, especially in how he devotes his life to what is truly important – love.