Devil spawn or road to easy riches?

Debt is one of the most controversial tools in finance. It’s been demonized and lionized, depending on who’s talking. Both lender and borrower take on risk, and both can lose their shirts in the process. An economic nuclear winter will kill both sides, but in general, the more leverage, the greater the risk.

“The harder they come, the harder they fall,” to quote Jimmy Cliff.

My coaching client (also a coach) was grappling with a money dilemma.

She wanted to enroll in a $5,000 certification program offered by a coach she loved. But she’d already invested more than $25,000 in coaching training, and while her practice was growing, it was only just starting to make money. She’d sworn not to spend more of her family’s nest egg until her business was more profitable.

She was torn between desire and reality.

Are the things you want to spend on “dirty”?

Do you treat money differently depending on its source?

If so, you may have a madonna/whore complex about the objects of your desire. In psychology, this syndrome is defined by Freud (via Wikipedia) as "Where such men love they have no desire and where they desire they cannot love." Translation: “Good girls” are lovable, but not sexy. “Sexy girls” are not marriage material.

Think relationships, not transactions, for better business.

It’s time to put humanity back into capitalism. To create community. To delight. To inspire.

I believe that business can be a profound generative act of creativity and generosity. It does not have to be exploitative or extractive.

We’re not taught that business is like physics, but it is.

Just as the laws of thermodynamics, motion, mass and energy help us understand how the world works, the laws of finance help us anticipate the results our business decisions will create.

Not that these laws can’t (or shouldn’t) be broken. The laws of finance can be defied in a way that the laws of gravity can’t.

Business has an internal logic.

I have been back home in Hawai’i since New Year’s Eve.

My mom turns 90 this month, and she has two older siblings still living; my aunt Hatsuko (99 years old!) and my uncle Masa who’s 92. It’s been a blessing to spend time with them and my extended family and to reconnect with friends and classmates (Punahou ‘79).

I’ve also been mixing business with pleasure.