A JR Smith conversation about money and status made me think about what I actually want from having a business: not just ownership, but enough success and freedom to help people in a concrete way.
Just now, I was watching a JR Smith video where he was talking about fulfillment.
He was sitting next to Paul George, Russell Westbrook, DeMar DeRozan and James Harden. They were talking about LA, Compton, California, that whole world. I think only DeMar is actually from Compton, but that is not really the point. The point is that these guys came from places where people could use real help, and now they are sitting there with hundreds of millions of dollars between them.
JR was talking about how they can go to a strip club and throw sixty thousand dollars each, or buy some Dolce & Gabbana backpack, and at a certain point he is basically asking: who are we even trying to impress?
That part stayed with me.
He was saying that if each of these guys is worth two hundred million dollars, why not pool the money together and bring their neighborhoods up? Bring their people up? Why should a kid from that neighborhood have to make it all the way to UCLA just to play in a good gym? Why can they not build the gym there?
Honestly, which bank is going to say no if five of them walk in together?
But the real point was not only money. It was mindset. Money by itself does not automatically turn into responsibility. It does not automatically turn into direction.
That made me think about myself. From a pretty young age, maybe because I was privileged enough to think beyond survival, I knew I wanted fulfillment to come from helping others. Not in some abstract way. I mean being useful to people who actually need help.
In my head, the ideal form of that was always having my own business.
Technically, I have that now. I have my own business. But I would not say the goal is achieved. It is more like it is in progress. Ecoand exists, but it is still being built. Owning the business is not the fulfillment by itself.
The real goal is to make the business successful enough that it gives me the freedom, resources and ability to help people in a concrete way.
That is the part I do not want to forget.
Fulfillment is not the money. It is not the status. It is not being able to buy things or prove something to people. The business is supposed to be the vehicle.
The fulfillment comes from helping others, and helping those in need.