“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding.” – Proverbs 3:13

The meaning and purpose of life are to create happiness and avoid pain for oneself and all those within one’s sphere of influence. This is ideal. In my experience, one will never make a perfect score because of the complexity of the human being manifested by one’s physical, intellectual, spiritual, emotional, financial and business mix.

In life, we should strive to accumulate wealth, but the real measure of your wealth is how much you would be worth if you lost all your money. We must, therefore, focus on holistic wealth through the comprehensive development of the human being.

I am reminded of the classic curative (and often preventive) medical health care sequence – a symptom, tests, diagnosis, treatment, recovery and prognosis. It is designed to achieve high-quality physical health throughout the journey of life. This process must be extended to holistic wealth, in the context of optimizing the triple bottom line — people, planet and profit — with the expected achievement of high quality of life.

If people, for whatever reason, create social unrest; if our ecological space is subjected to increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which induce climate change; if the enabling business environment does not produce prosperity; then humanity, as we know it, is at risk.

When a baby is born on planet Earth, any mentally stable parent would wish their child to develop to the fullest and, through procreation, expand the human race. The parent would be mindful of the need to preserve the ecological environment on which human beings are dependent for survival. This would allow them to convert their free, God-given 24 hours per day into disposable income, which would collectively, over all human beings, result in the sustainability of humankind.

There are many examples in Barbados and the Caribbean of the impact of strong families on the quality of life in communities. It begins in the home with a visionary patriarch or matriarch or, patriarch and matriarch, working together as one. It is extended in business where several generations of these visionaries have expanded the business concepts into large privately or publicly held companies. The family is at the foundation of this success that overflows into many other facets of society.

Management is a cycle of functions. Planning sets objectives for a dialogue culture, financial security, consumer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and unlocking human potential. Organizing mobilizes several instruments which systematically facilitates leaders in the execution process on the journey to business growth and sustainability. The business activity is monitored periodically, and corrective action is taken when there is a departure from the expected target. Then the cycle is repeated.

If this management process is applied to optimizing the use of our gift of 24 hours per day and to mobilizing the collective resources in our family units, then we would be well on our way to achieving quality of life and, ultimately, happiness.

 

Life is what we have. Let us keep it simple and, in whatever we do, follow the ELF principle – make it Easy, Lucrative, and Fun. Manage our God-given resources of time and family and remember to strive for peace in an environment where God is Love.