Filed under: Meaning
Stop. Stop what you’re doing, stop what you’re thinking, stop moving. Now, why are you doing it? Really WHY?
Okay breathe. What you’ve just experienced is a simulation of one of those moments where you ask yourself a question and receive a potentially life altering answer. I woke up Monday morning and just such a question hit me. It was more specific though.
“Why? Why do you want to run your own business?”
I realized that the only answers I had were answers that led to greater questions.
“Um, I want to financially independent.” Why? “Because, I want to have money.” Why?
“So I can I survive” is not an answer which satisfies the lofty conscious.
Someone told me if you own your own business you have to work 10 times harder than everyone else. So what is the point of it all?
I came up with more answers; none very satisfying. If I had more money I could give to any charity I want, I could buy anything I want, and I could go anywhere I want. Nope, wasn’t doing anything for me. It wasn’t enough. No answer was hitting that sweet truth spot.
Fighting off a minor panic I ran to the coffee shop and furiously stabbed at my keyboard with desperate fingertips. The owner approached me. “So, whats new?” he asked me with a grin.
Now here is a guy who quit his job to start his own coffee shop. Perfect guy to ask!
“Why did you start your own business as opposed to working for someone else?”
He told me a story of how someone on wall street, making 100,000 dollars a year, loses their job, and what do they do? Do they try and create something with all their money? No, they file for unemployment. Creating your own business gives you a kind of self reliance that you just can’t get anywhere else. It gives you the ability to say, no matter what happens to me, I’ll be able to create something, because that’s what I do.
And furthermore, when you are an employer, taking care of your employees is a great responsibility. Now your success or failure doesn’t just affect you, it affects many more people. With you in existence, other people’s lives are supported and enriched.
He told me a story of a business owner, 60 years old, his plant burned down and he collected a check for 30 million dollars. What did he do with that money? He rebuilt the plant and hired every body back. The media got a hold of the story and went crazy.
“Why didn’t you just take the money and live a simple life?”
“What for? So I can eat more and die tomorrow?”
For the owner, rebuilding the plant wasn’t something he did for himself, he did for all the people who worked there.
Something clicked in my head. I figured it out. Being a charitable person, and being an employer are both ways of living a life of responsibility towards others. When you link your fate with others, suddenly what you’re doing becomes about more than just helping yourself. You’re doing something that affects many others. Your life isn’t just about you anymore. It means something more. It has Meaning.
Responsibility over people = meaning.
I was thrilled about this revelation. But then the clouds started rolling in.
Filed under: Green Thinking
First off a confession. I am not a good environmentalist.
I purchased a pillow today. A newly produced pillow which probably came from some pillow producing factory pumping pillow producing sludge into some pillow producing country. Immediately after doing so, I stepped onto the sidewalk and ran into Brad, an advocate for Children International, and the conversation went something like this:
Brad: “Hey, have you considered giving to Children International?”
Me: “Yes but two problems…”
Brad: “Go on…”
Me: “Okay well, for one, I’m really really broke.”
Brad: (Looking down at my shopping bag) “I see you have purchased a pillow.”
Me: (Awkwardly) “Yes. This pillow is necessary for my survival.”
Brad: “…”
So, that went well. I had a long interesting discussion with Brad, who turned out to be pretty cool, and went home wondering why I was able to budget 40 dollars for designer pillow, but not 22 dollars to help a kid in a third world nation.
The answer is more complex than it seems.
