Book Review: The Soul of Money
Hello everybody! Good afternoon, and welcome to the gratitude bubble. Literally, a geodesic dome heated in our backyard in New York City. I hope all is well your way. I want to take a few brief moments to do two things:
We've done it wrong for five years.
I want to challenge you to look at the relationships in your life right now differently.
I just got done reading The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life by Lynne Twist. It was recommended to me by Steve Tam. Phenomenal book. Literally, the entire book is about the difference between scarcity and sufficiency. We live in a world that's filled with, I want more, I need more, let's go get more even if I kill myself doing it, or I slaved myself away at work to get it. That's not a life that's living in a scarcity mindset. We're all about gratitude, appreciating or giving gratitude to the blessings that you have. And the value that you receive from others is a way to develop a sufficiency mindset.
Thank you.
What this book has helped me uncover is that we've been doing business, our business, wrong for five years. See, most of our clients are these ultra-high net worth founders, CEOs, venture back companies, Inc. 500 mid-market, or even publicly traded firms. We are going to them or they're coming to us and saying, all right, who do we bring together, we're going to do some virtual gratitude experiences or we're going to do some in-person experiences? We usually say to them, bring your teams, or bring your external partners, referral partners, best clients, and prospects. Boy, do we have that wrong. What we should be doing is helping them bring together people that provide them well-being and life-affirming feelings, regardless of the monetary relationships.
Here's an example from the book. Lynn in this book sat down with a woman named Audrey. Audrey was recently divorced, she got married young and ended up in an unhappy relationship. Her husband divorced her and took all her money. She's left with nothing, completely broke, at least financially. And Lynn goes to her and says, “You know what Audrey, I want you to write down 20 people's names who have ever given you a compliment or appreciated something about you”. Whether it's childhood friends or recent friends, she wrote down the 20 names and Lynn said, “All right, now tell me the adjectives that they would use to describe you”. And Audrey wrote down adjectives, like clever, courageous, brave, beautiful, bold, funny, witty, humorous, all those kinds of things. And when Lynn helped her realize these attributes that most people take an entire lifetime to develop and that money can't buy, Audrey's life changed. She got to dream and design and create a creative vision for her new future without the baggage of her husband. And she got to bring those 20 people together. She got to introduce them to one another and create so much well-being and life-affirming feelings. From this, she was launched into action.
So we've had it all wrong. We've gone to our clients and said, “Just bring people that you have a monetary relationship with”. But no, that is so wrong.
In writing this book, Lynne Twist got to sit down with Mother Teresa. And in this book, she says that Mother Theresa told her that “The deep poverty of the soul that afflicts the wealthy, and the poverty of the soul in America was deeper than any poverty she had seen anywhere on earth”. So whether you're an ultra-high net worth founder, CEO, or you're just someone chasing pennies on the street, think less about the relationships that surround you based on money. Think more about the relationships that surround you based on wellbeing, loyalty, trust, courage, and bravery. See, these are the things that will help us become less lonely as a society. These are the things that will propel us into the next creative moments of mankind. And when you invest in that type of connection, it's so good.
If you're someone who's reading this and you're thinking about coming to us to buy some virtual gratitude experiences, I'm going to challenge you. Let's say you buy ten or you buy three. I'm going to look at you and say the first experience we do, you have to promise me that you're going to invite people in your life that you have no monetary connection to, and you're going to feel so damn good. Your life is going to turn around on a dime and it's going to be amazing. The next ones will serve your team, your customers, or your prospects, the good stuff. But let's start with people that bring you joy.
That's my tirade. I thank you, Steve Tam, for this great book. I highly recommend it. There are some great, great stories. Anyway, I hope y’all are having a phenomenal day on earth. Remember, it's your world, go explore, and we'll see you at the next book review.