My 12 year old entrepreneurial son recently asked me, "Dad, is it wrong to want to be rich...like really rich?"
What a fantastic question and who can blame him for asking. After all, money, power, and respect are cultural currency visible all around us. In fact, many new entrepreneurs I encounter (and the old one's too) have dollar signs in their eyes.
To be transparent, I've asked the same question and maybe you have too. My itch for riches sprouted from growing up poor and wanting badly to become a millionaire by age 30 - to accumulate what I believed to be the greatest asset on the planet. So I fervently bought, sold, and held businesses. I acquired the toys, the friends, and the excitement. It was a rush.
Then life started to fall apart. Why? You guessed it, I could not see past myself.
It took years and serious change to realize that my greatest asset was not enormous wealth, rather the people I served.
So I shared a precious nugget with my son that I had to learn the hard way: "If you serve others in PROFOUNDLY uncommon ways, exceptionally solving RELEVANT problems, your professional net worth will naturally increase. And that's not easy, but it must be your FIRST focus, your PURPOSE. Then, come see me and I'll help you make your purpose profitable."
Kommentare