Have you ever….
-Tapped a line of credit or 2nd mortgage so you could give
your employees their paycheck?
-Paid off your vendors and creditors, even though it meant
canceling a long-awaited vacation?
-Heard about someone in need and helped them out, even
though you knew you would eventually end up borrowing the
money – you didn’t have it but you gave anyway because it
was the right thing to do?
With that in mind….
…When’s the last time you turned on CNN and heard an
encouraging story about business owners doing good in the
world?
When’s the last time you heard somebody in the media or
education system say, “We need to build up entrepreneurs,
because new businesses will become the foundation of our
communities” ?
For all those who assume us money-grubbing entrepreneurs
are driven by greed, selfishness and ego, let me share with
you the results of a study by the Center for Data Analysis
and the Heritage Foundation:
Charitable Giving by Household Income, based on IRS data:
Income Class Entrepreneurs Non-Entrepreneurs
$65,480+ 3.23% 2.42%
$37,381-$65,480 3.47% 1.84%
$21,661-$37,380 3.29% 1.14%
$10,661-$21,660 2.25% 0.74%
$0-$10,660 1.55% 0.35%
Average 2.53% 1.27%
Looks like entrepreneurs are TWICE as generous as everyone
else. ESPECIALLY the ones with low incomes(!)
Why is that? What’s going on here?
It’s real simple.
Most people only understand scarcity. Entrepreneurs
understand abundance.
My experience of entrepreneurs is we overwhelmingly tend to
take care of everybody else before we worry about ourselves.
My friend, if you tapped every resource to pay everyone, if
you went to bed not knowing how tomorrow’s bills were going
to get paid, then at least you had faith in the goodness of
providence and the power of imagination and resourcefulness
to find a solution.
THIS is why people in the modern world have three meals a
day and microwave ovens and beds to sleep in and health care
and straight teeth and computers and movies and modern
music.
Because… somebody had faith in the power of ingenuity.
They dreamed and schemed and innovated and gave until it
hurt. Believing that somehow, somewhere, success would show
up when it was most needed.
None of us can ever predict when or how solution to some
vexing problem will present itself. We just have faith that
it will.
I don’t know what problem you face today, but I know that
one of two things is true:
1) Someone somewhere has already solved it, or
2) The ability to solve it WILL be given to you
Most of all I want to salute you in pursuing a journey that
most people never even have the courage to undertake.
When you find the success you seek, you deserve it.
The talking heads on TV may not appreciate us. But we
appreciate each other. And I appreciate you.
Seize the Day.
~PM
