It’s not about the money

My father took his first job in 1947, after graduating from MIT on the GI Bill.

He worked for the first company to produce a ball point pen for under a dollar, and he quickly worked his way up to become foreman.

He came to the two owners and showed them how the could improve efficiency in a way that would boost profits by 30 percent.

They weren't interested. They were making more money than they had ever imagined, and they had no interest in putting in more effort to make more.

A quarter of a century later, I could still hear the contempt in my father's voice when he recounted the story. "If you don't need more money," he said, "give it to charity. Why would anyone pass up an easy way to increase revenue when it's staring them right in the face?"

It wasn't about the money. Dad's tastes remained simple his whole life. It was about discipline, about mindset, about the potential to bring good into the world that money represents.

I thought of my father when I passed these Los Angeles gas stations last month. They're barely a quarter mile apart, yet the one priced 30 percent higher is apparently doing business just fine.

Why would anyone pay an extra $25 a tank just to save a five minute drive?

Yes, we sometimes pay for convenience. And, yes, time is money.

Be we can also be careless, lazy, and unappreciative for what we have. Money, time, talent, relationships, opportunities... these are all gifts. If we squander them, we might discover that they have vanished while we weren't paying attention.

If we appreciate them, we might be surprised how the multiply without limit.

How have you shown appreciation for your gifts today?

BTW, the tenth anniversary of Dad's passing is next week. More on that to come.

#ethics #mindset #values #perspective #culture