Sep 8, 2012

The Magic of Living Below Your Means

I'm reading the book Linchpin by Seth Godin. Seth Godin is well known in marketing & business circles, and you can find his blog here....

The basic premise of the book (or at least what I'm getting out of it) is that if we view what we do as art, instead of mind numbing work we'll be inspired to do what we do with passion & creativity; producing far more than before. Furthermore, if we view what we do as art, we typically would happily do it for free if we can. We get more joy out seeing our art enjoyed by others than we get out of getting paid for it.

For the sake of time, I am over simplify the book, but I wanted to give you a little background before sharing the following quote from the book:

"One of the reasons people give for not giving gifts is that they can't afford it. Gifts don't have to cost money, but they always cost time and effort. If you're in a panic about money, those two things are hard to find. The reason these people believe they can't afford it, though, is that they've so bought into consumer culture that they're in debt or have monthly bills that make no sense at all.
When you cut your expenses to the bone, you have a surplus. The surplus allows you to be generous, which mysteriously turns around and makes your surplus even bigger."

I've read it several times over... I've typed it out... But I'm still working to get my mind wrapped around the full meaning of it. But it kinda reminds me of what it says in James 4:2-3: You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.  And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

What do you think... Would you do what you do; whether it's answering phones, turning a wrench, typing in numbers or serving others for free if you could?

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