Words matter.
But you know that.
There’s an important equivalence going on right now that I want to draw your attention to–just in case you’re in the middle of it…
There is a difference–profound and vital to know in. your. bones–between making money IN a crisis and making money OUT of one.
It is totally legitimate, indeed, I would go so far as to say it is your responsibility to actively do the work to try to make money in this crisis. If and when you manage to, it will then also be your responsibility to share that money around, not sit on piles of it like some deluded dragon with a gold fetish.
(The really nice thing is that if you’re reading this I’m pretty sure you’d never take the dragon route, but I’m sharing this thought so that you can share it on to other people as well, and some of them might lean towards the Dragonish.)
I get it. You’re scared of being exploitative. I was too. But here’s what I’ve realised.
As long as your motivation is good, your actions are in line with your values, and you stay within integrity, you can stay the right side of that line.
EVEN IF–and this is a distinct possibility–you have identified a (free or paid) opportunity that is only there because of the current crisis, like…
- a website where people can leave their worries on the web, or
- a set of pre-recorded audios to help with fear/anxiety/isolation, or
- a webinar to guide business owners through recalibrating their ideal client avatar
that doesn’t mean you’re making money out of it.
It means you have an entrepreneurial brain and a positive way of approaching the world. Neither of those is a bad thing.
In the words of Ash Ambirge (who I’ll be quoting a fair bit on this blog, I’ll wager), “making money is a moral action.” People don’t pay you unless you are useful to them. Making money is a marker of the fact that you have been useful.
Now–in all honesty, there are some pretty big examples when this is not the case, which, frankly, is a big part of what’s wrong with the world right now. But you know that too.
The way I see it, self-employed folk were already ahead of the game going into this. Most of us are used to surviving on our wits. We’re already comfortable with a lifestyle that is different from the 9-5, do-as-you’re-told norm. Since you’re on my mailing list, I’m guessing that one of the things that drives you in your business is the desire to change the system–away from the damaging growth-only, profit-is-King approach, to a more humane, people+planet philosophy.
Now, more than ever, people with a thirst for social and climate justice need to step up.
We need to be being helpful, showing the way forward and inspiring, supporting and leading the economic recovery that will come once the dust has settled and we all return to life outside of our four walls. Life will not be going ‘back to normal’–and nor should it. Normal didn’t work for an awful lot of people. It’s time to change the normal. And it’s up to us to play our part.
What action are you taking to help your people this week? Hit me up on the Twitters and let me know.
