Wealth & Money Quote by Øystein Stray Spetalen

A Norwegian billionaire insisting it "isn't about making a lot of money" lands with a deliberate double edge: it reads as counsel, but it also functions as cover. Øystein Stray Spetalen has built his public identity inside the money game - shipping, finance, high-stakes dealmaking - so the line works less as a rejection of wealth than as a reframing of what justifies it. The subtext is classic late-capitalist virtue: profit is permissible, even admirable, if it can be narrated as a byproduct of conviction.

That rhetoric is useful because it answers a cultural suspicion that successful businesspeople are motivated by extraction. By centering "passion" and "belief", Spetalen shifts the moral argument away from outcomes (who gains, who loses, what gets hollowed out) toward intention (I meant well; I cared). It's a subtle defense against cynicism: you may question the system, but you can't easily cross-examine someone's inner fire.

The phrasing also flatters the listener. It invites aspirational identification: you, too, can be the kind of person who doesn't chase money - money just happens to follow you. In the startup era and the influencer economy, that story is social currency. It lets ambition present as authenticity.

Context matters: coming from someone who has already "won", the advice is safer to give than to take. Passion can be a luxury, and "believe in" can be a branding move. The line isn't anti-money; it's pro-legitimacy.