I’m offering a free group coaching Zoom call for people who want to both help the world–make impact and have meaning–and take good care of themselves financially.
It’s called Prosperity for Do-Gooders. You are invited! The registration link is here. The details are below, but first some background…
The epigraph of my book How To Be Alive quotes a Korean Zen Master Won Hyo. He writes, “Likewise, helping oneself and helping others are like the two wings of a bird.”
A bird can’t fly on only one wing. A person can’t live happily without both security (helping oneself) and meaning (helping others).
But many of us imagine that we can’t expect to do meaningful, impactful work and be prosperous at the same time.
I call this the monk or the merchant syndrome. We believe, in our society, that if a business person (a merchant) is trying to do good, they can’t really be a good business person. If somebody claiming to do good in the world (a monk) makes a lot of money, they can’t really be doing good.
Years ago, I faced this societal belief head on when I lived for a year as environmentally as possible and wrote a book and made a movie about it, both called No Impact Man. People said, “He is not a truly good. He is making money from his book.” Or, “If you really wanted to do good, you would give all the proceeds from your book to charity.”
Like, somehow, if I was really sincere, I should want to impoverish myself and my family. Sincere people should not earn a living doing good.
My point here is that there is a very strong trope in our society that you simply cannot both make a great living and sincerely do good in the world.
The result of that trope? Many of us who want to do good and have a positive impact are scared we will end up losing our good lifestyle. Furthermore, many who are already doing good believe that wanting to get paid decently for what they do is somehow immoral and would undermine the sincerity of what they do.
But is not true! We don’t have to choose between doing good and doing well!
My writing and coaching career are proof of that. So are the careers of many philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, writers, film-makers, sustainability experts, social justice workers and on and on.
But still it is hard. It is hard, if you earn money, to imagine you could do anything good while continuing to earn. And the opposite side is true too. If you have work doing good, it is hard to believe that you will ever earn money.
What advice can I give you? The truth is, it is hard to come up with one size fits all advice for finding a path forward where you are doing good both by yourself and the world.
That’s why I am offering this free group coaching Zoom meeting that I am calling Prosperity For Do-Gooders. It will be a discussion with like-minded people about the challenges of having a lucrative, meaningful career and steps forward to finding it.
Want to join?
Time: 3PM EST
Date: Jan 30, 2022
Duration: 90 minutes
Register here.
Can’t wait to see you there!