Zig Ziglar liked to say that with that one question, you could tell if someone was a successful life insurance agent. If they’re not willing to buy it with their own money, how can they honestly persuade someone else to do so?
If you’re in the music business but you never buy tickets or downloads, can you really empathize with the people you’re selling to?
My favorite: if you work for a non-profit and you don’t give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job? I’ve met some incredibly generous people in the charitable world, but I can also report that a huge number of people—even on the fundraising side—would happily cross the street and risk a beating in order to avoid giving $100 to a cause that’s not their own. And the shame of it is that this inaction on their part keeps them from experiencing the very emotion that they try so hard to sell.
Money is more than a transfer of value. It’s a statement of belief. An ad agency that won’t buy ads, a consultant who won’t buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn’t tip big—it’s a sign, and not a good one.
Today, The Caleb Foundation celebrated the grand opening of The Olde Woolen Mill in North Berwick, ME. We’ve been working on this project for quite awhile and are thrilled to see residents moving in.
The Portland station, WCSH Channel 6 covered the event here.
Almost every time I see Field of Dreams on, I stop and watch it for awhile. It was a magical movie growing up. I didn’t play baseball and I didn’t live on a farm, but there was something so familiar about the whole movie. Who would have thought that the most famous line from the movie would end up describing a revolutionary idea to end poverty in developing nations?
If you build it, they will come…
Who can forget JEJ’s speech when Kevin Costner’s about to sign away the farm?
While Paul Romer doesn’t have nearly as impressive of a voice as JEJ, he does manage to deliver a moving (and controversial) clarion call with a similar suggestion: If you build it, they will come. Only Romer’s not talking about a baseball field in the middle of the cornfields, he’s talking about brand new, empty cities, built on uninhabited lands in poor nations, governed by other nations that invite people to come get jobs there.
Romer outlines his idea for lifting millions out of poverty:
Building Charter Cities that
1. are governed by good rules (captured in the charter) multiple nations,
2. offer choices for people (consist of completely voluntary residents and built on uninhabited land) and
3. offer choices for leaders (in the form of joint partnerships between different nations to govern the charter city).
J.W. Hulme Satchel
Paul Smith Tortoise Shells
Big Sur Axe by BestMadeCo.
