More to life than greed

“Life is certainly not all about getting money for everything you do. It would be a very miserable life if we could not give freely of our talents.” I wrote that a decade or so ago. It is even more appropriate today because it seems today’s world is driven by greed.
Life in America of 2026, is incredibly stressful. Our way of life, our democracy, our values, our immigrant neighbors, the press, our national parks, women’s rights and our wallets are under attack by the rich and powerful who have taken over our government and society. Getting a good paying job and buying a home seem out of reach for many. Just going to the grocery store and the filling station make you wonder how you will pay for everything.
I make no attempt at hiding how distressed I am at the state of our country. Yet I have challenged myself to remember better times, especially those events and accomplishments that have left a lasting positive impression on me.
When I comb through my positive memories, I can see a pattern. It turns out that an overwhelming number of those memories revolve around accomplishments that have been achieved with others. One of the few memories that stuck with me in my early grades is the successful campaign by NC school children to give a dime to save the battleship NC. Over $300,000 was raised, a dime at a time. I also still have good memories from my days in the Boy Scouts when I was senior patrol leader for our troop and we won the coup stick at summer camp at Camp Raven Knob for best maintained campsite. I learned you could not ask people to do something that you weren’t willing to do yourself especially keeping latrines sanitary. Leading by example instead of coercion was a huge lesson to learn in my teens.
Twenty years later I was exceedingly proud of the barns we built on our farm. My crew was two neighbors in their seventies and a couple of back to land fellows living off the grid. None of us had ever built a barn. Yet we ended up building two very impressive ones. It was a great team accomplishment.
After I went to Apple, I built a team of higher education sales professionals that performed better than any other team over the five years we had higher ed teams. Then a reorganization or two later, I built a government sales team which accomplished more than even I thought was possible over a four year period. We started with team so small that it could fit in my van. As the team grew, we continued to turn in extraordinary sales results until Apple tired of us and the market.
Beyond the team successes at Apple, there were a number of individuals I mentored and helped them become more successful. Seeing someone you helped mount the award stage is a terrific feeling of success.
When I look at the dysfunction in our government, I am astounded that our country is being led by someone unwilling to listen to anything but praise. His whole reasoning is that only he can fix things and everyone else is just unnecessary window dressing.
How move from rugged individualism to a world where we celebrate our collective achievements might be a challenge that our society cannot refuse.
As a side note the only time that I have ever seen our cats act as a team is when they are chasing a fly or a bug. Let us hope it is easier for us to see the big picture than it is for cats.