My Self Perception

So I started a company with some colleagues and friends a few months ago and decided I should expand that knowledge through my LinkedIn account. You know, join the right groups, extend the right invitations etc. The crazy thing is that while I was going through the list of hundreds of 1st and 2nd degree connections, I recognized a number of people I knew. But when I went to invite them I had this hesitation around whether they would know or remember me. Maybe it is psychologically healthy not to assume that one is unforgettable or maybe it is an underestimation of the impact one has on the lives of others as our paths intersect, converge and diverge. I was heartened by the responses, the acceptance of invitations and took them to mean that I was in the very least memorable. I will wait for our renewed acquaintances to show how much so.

So I turned 50 a couple of months ago and it really struck me that I probably have more days behind me than in front of me. I don't say that with fear rather, an urgency to get some things done before I am unable to. I incorporated a business recently and several teammates are working with me to get this thing going. It is stretching in interesting ways. When I think of corporate I imagine exploitation, corruption, and general malevolence. So I am left with the question of how to be successful by not exploiting and letting unfettered greed drive the decision making of the business. I believe I am now grounded and mature enough to seek counsel, extract my ego and look to what is best for the greatest number of people involved. Make no mistake, I want to make more money than I can spend so that my unborn grandchildren will be afforded opportunities that I never had. I don't want to be rich. I want to be wealthy and I want those working with me on this to be wealthy as well. And I need to do what is right for my community, and the planet. It occurs to me that these might be incompatible with the hyper-capitalism that is practiced in the United States.
Poverty isn't confined to the "poor." Those with significant resources, the 1%ers are often the poorest as they struggle to hold onto every penny of their wealth as if anyone else having more diminishes them. It appears as though there isn't enough for everyone so the haves become the hoarders and the have nots the enemy. Poverty is a mind-set that believes there isn't enough, be it time, energy, money, love, food. Those who believe that there isn't enough are the poor and so they struggle to accumulate to fill some unquenchable void. The critical mass of the real poor work so desperately to control that it becomes toxic and the world suffers.
So I have made a commitment and ask those committed to humanity, such as it is, to temper the greed, and be in service to something greater.

All my best

PAB