Quick Self-Evaluation: If you are reading this, it is likely that you have reasonable levels of security, shelter, food and water. Let's explore some other dimensions of wealth. Grab a notepad and write your answers to the questions below, including your rationale, examples, and notes about how those answers have changed over time.
- How many times did you laugh out loud yesterday? Each day last week? Today?
- How many truly close relationships do you have? “When you're nearing your end of life, your only measure of success should be the number of people you want to have love you actually do love you.” - Warren Buffett
- How much do you truly enjoy the people you work with every day, including customers?
- How good is your health? Physical? Mental? Spiritual?
- How much progress did you make today on being the best version of you possible? During the last week? Last month? Last year? Last decade?
- How many others have you helped become truly wealthy?
Looking at any of your answers that you aren't fully satisfied with, please make note of:
- What would an ideal future-state answer look like? It doesn't matter when that is—simply defining your ideal future state is a start. Clarity in vision is where all journeys begin.
- What is one small step you can take in that direction over the next week? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Recommended Reading: The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
Levels of Impact - Starting with Self
By many global and US stats, we have both a higher level of abundance and a lower degree of satisfaction than any other point in history. This dichotomy must be reconciled to bring it back into alignment:
- At the individual level - we can't impact others until we can impact ourselves.
- At the family level - all impact on others should start at home.
- At the team level - all large organizations are comprised of individuals working in relatively small teams of 2-15 people. These teams range from high school sports teams to project teams. At this size, every position is crucial for success—while the degree of impact may vary by situation, every individual is contributes and is essential.
- At the company / organization level - it's simply a network of interrelated teams working toward a common vision.
- At the governance level - from city and state through the leadership of the federal government.
Start within and truly build your wealth. Then start working to have a broader and broader impact on helping others. That's what we will unpack a little more in the rest of this article.
"Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” - Rumi
Study Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as he describes individual motivations from basic physiological (food, water, sleep) up through self-actualization and transcendence.
- What habits do I need to form for myself to build on the foundation and grow?
- If I'm leading a team or company, what systems can I put in place that will help those who trust my leadership to take an objective inventory of where they are at, and build from that foundation? These systems that build people holistically are just as important as—and must be integrated with—the systems that build projects.
This is the only way for contractors to build truly resilient businesses and mitigate the decline in talent in the construction industry.
Some Historical Context
It's important to see the directionality of the changes in the world over time, remembering that increases in communication (internet / social media) don't correlate linearly with actual changes. Hans Rosling does a great job describing this in five minutes.
Final note—remember that there is a huge difference between being wealthy, being comparatively wealthy, and feeling wealthy.
- There will always be someone wealthier.
- There will be many more who are situationally wealthier—at a certain point in time or certain condition.
- There will be many more than that who appear wealthier—sometimes by their deception but most of the time by our own internal deception.
What matters most is the individual journey—its trajectory over time and the people who share it with you.
