What Matters Most to You?

What is more important to you, wealth or dignity?

I'm enamoured and shocked with the statistics of world poverty and have recently become interested and in strong support of microfinance lending in poverty stricken areas of the world (how I was not intersted in it before I will chalk up to laziness and a narrow world view). If you read my blog (and there are few that do), you'll know this by my other posts.

I just finished watching a great TEDBlog by Jacqueline Novogratz entitled Tackling Poverty with Patient Capital (the talk is at the bottom of this post). She made a really amazing statement based on her experience in Africa working in areas of microfinance.

"Dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth"

I love this statement because it's a great balance to the get rich, be rich, act rich, all thing rich culture. There is a battle here because part of my initiative in starting my own company is to create financial freedom and personal freedom. But it's quotes like this that bring reality to the goal of "freedom". Life is not about wealth nor should it be about financial freedom. If it is a product of life, then what blessing.

My college budies and I had a quote that we all swore we wanted to live life by.

"Be men of God speaking well."

I hope and pray when people look a me, my life, and my business they see dignity being more important than wealth and they see a man of God speaking well.