Profit or Prosperity?

When people say to follow your passion and the money will follow, what exactly do they mean? I have friends who are passionate about their painting and living an organic lifestyle. They may not have much money, but they have a better life than most because they are doing what they love and they have everything they need. On paper they may not even be profitable, but they are prosperous.

Profit is the money left over after all costs are covered. Prosperity is a way of living.

When we think about Prosperity we think about having enough. It’s hard to feel like we have enough. There’s always something more we would like to have. So prosperity feels unattainable. It’s something other people have, you know, the ones who, if we had what they had, we’d be happy.

We could blame advertising for creating a whole lifetime of wants out of thin air. We could blame our hollow lifestyles that have us craving some meaning and trying instead to fill the void with stuff. We could blame our natures, which have been conditioned, for us to continually strive for more. Who else can we blame? Our parents? Yes, they bought into the whole post-war industrial, suburban, ride-on-mower-in-every-garage lifestyle.

That’s irrelevant at this point, because we are the bosses of our lives. We have the choice. We can choose to live a life with meaning, purpose and passion. When we focus on those, the things don’t matter anymore.

That doesn’t mean we have to go the haircloth route (what is haircloth?) or live in a freezing garret to be true to our art and ourselves. It means that we focus on our art rather than on stuff that forces us to take jobs just to pay off the ride on mower we bought on the credit card.

Philosophers have been studying ‘the Good Life’ for as long as people have been aware that life could be more than just hunting and eating, etc. They inevitably come back to simpler is better. The less stuff we have in our lives, the more we have to fill our lives with meaning. As we search for meaning we find our passion.

So maybe what we should say is: Follow your passion and the good life will follow.

Similar posts
  • 6 Stages of Starting Your Business I resisted. For the longest time. Working with people starting a business. People in startup mode are overwhelmed and when my clients are overwhelmed, I get overwhelmed. When you are starting, you need so much. All at once. I didn’t think I had the ability to be effective and really help. Until I realized that [...]
  • Business as Algorithm An algorithm is a methodical set of steps that produces a predictable result. That’s what you want your business to be, because a business that runs smoothly and predictably will make your life easier. While life, people and business can be unpredictable, you can design most of that out of your business with the right [...]
  • Here’s how to make sampling wor... Every business has a core focus. It’s not dependent on industry, type of business or where it is. It comes from the leadership. Your core focus is either on people, product or business model. You will attract your best customers by being true to your focus. Your language, your forward face and your stories must [...]
  • Designing Your Customer’s Journ... I keep getting the question, ”How do I design a customer journey?” Let me answer that question by using my Find Freedom in 2017 program as an example.   How are people attracted? Small business owners are attracted to working with me, because they have met me, or someone who knows me tells them to [...]
  • Stop Struggling: Get Great Customers   Why Great Customers are so important You’ve heard of the Pareto Principle. Applied here, we can say that 20% of your customers bring you 80% of your revenue. For that matter, 20% of your customers cost you 80% of your marketing and service budget. And they are rarely the same customers. What if you [...]

1 Comment

  1. December 15, 2015    

    You made some clear points there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most guys will agree with your site.