Can you feel better than a million bucks?
Everyone wants to be a millionaire, or so they think. When I was younger, I too had that aspiration.
A lot of people laughed at me. Especially one of my aunts. She would ask every time I came for a visit, if I was rich yet.
As the years went by, and I grew into my twenties, thirties and forties, the belief that having lots of money would solve all, or any of my problems, dissolved.
Funny enough, having a business solely to make money has rarely entered my mind. Each and every one of my businesses now has a purpose of helping people feel better physically, spiritually and/or mentally.
Come to think about it, I have had ventures that were all about making money. The worm business my brothers and I had when I was young was only about making money. Some good that did me, I ended up spending my time in a barnyard full of manure.
The truth of the matter is, throughout my life, any time I have been focused just on making money, I have pretty much ended up in a pile of something else!
All of us need purpose in life.
It doesn't matter if we are in business or living on the street, changing diapers or tires, teaching school, managing people or computers, or working flipping lumber, burgers, or retired, there is a purpose to our lives that is greater than any money we make or don't make.
When we equate the value of what we do to the money we make, we have a problem. That problem is that we can't place a financial value on a smile, or a warm heart, or that feeling we get when we know that someone actually cares for us.
That feeling that is given, when as leaders, owners, or employees, we look out for our fellow humans and do that little something special, to make a small difference in someone's day.
Don't get me wrong, I know that there are some business owners, and many people in this world, who do what they do and earn money just to survive and support their families. That doesn't mean that we need to hate our jobs or our businesses. That doesn't mean that because we aren't "living the dream" that we need to make our lives, or those around us, miserable.
As long as our job doesn't contribute to hurting people, who are we to think that what we do isn't changing the world for the better in some small way?
Recently, I was on a train going to the airport from downtown Toronto. On that train, the conductor, who was collecting tickets, started up a conversation with the riders.
He asked who was going where, who had a more interesting spot than the last person to go to, and was genuinely interested in people. He had people laughing and made the ride fun.
I doubt that this conductor started out in life thinking that this was his going to be his dream job. That his 12-20 years of education was going to give him a "career in ticket taking."
Yet here he was, in his 40s, and doing a job that many people might look down on. I surmise that he was working to support his family. This man definitely wasn't feeling sorry for himself! In fact, he seemed to take pride in making the mundane interesting, in making ordinary folks feel special.
So he wasn't laughing all the way to the bank, but he had us laughing all the way to the airport. He was making people forget about their cares and their worries, put down their phones and feel really alive.
Imagine if there were more of us just like him today, who tried to make others smile, and feel special.
If like this conductor, we took the time to really look into a strangers eyes and be interested in them. Chances are you might not make a million dollars, probably you wouldn't make even an extra dollar, but my guess is that you would feel better than a million bucks.
Why not try it?
Dave Fuller, MBA, is a business owner and certified professional business coach who loves to feel alive. Tell him what you think of this article by emailing him at [email protected].
