“Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.” – Proverbs 12:11

Last week’s column fleshed out “The Innovation Solutions” answer to the New Ideas challenge, the third of eight challenges, as we commit to working smarter towards the benefits of holistic prosperity and happiness in 2018.

This week we propose ” The Work Your ‘Land’ ” solution to Challenge # 4 – Earning Money.

When we become adults and are no longer dependent on our parents, we need to have access to money to cover our family expenses and ultimately have a nest egg for retirement. Initially we earn income to cover basic needs and as we advance in life we seek to increase our income in keeping with our family’s growing needs and our retirement pool. We must plan for this to be effective.

This planning process, where you have to work your ‘land’, involves establishing our relationship with God, maintaining good health, developing our mind and using whatever natural talents we have to earn money on a sustainable basis. Here are five ways in which we can approach this,  depending on our circumstances.

(1) Where appropriate, build on established family businesses created by grandparents or parents and innovatively contribute to growth and sustainability with a focus on the country (GDP growth, foreign exchange earnings, use of natural resources and increasing employment).  If the country succeeds, we all succeed. When you succeed in accumulating significant family wealth, start your own Foundation which will be mutually beneficial to the country and the family.

(2) Seek education from the cradle to the grave. Whether this is formal, online or otherwise, or secondary or tertiary, combine it with your natural talents and seek employment opportunities consistent with your vocation level.

(3) Embrace enterprise development as a way forward. Seek Shepherding assistance to boost your confidence in making the decision to become an entrepreneur. There is no shortage of business ideas which have been generated by individuals some of whom are entrepreneurs themselves. Entrepreneurs without any ideas may also feed from this source. Unfortunately, the enabling environment is missing in many countries, especially access to a source of appropriate finance for start-up businesses.

(4) The Internet has created a whole new world of business activity which means that you can do business from home either as a virtual employee of a company or by running your own business on the Internet. A Google search will open up a universe of intimate possibilities when you combine this with ideas of your own. The Internet gives us potential for huge time management benefits with massive increases in productivity.

 

(5) Finally, you need to franchise your business ideas as they evolve into mature businesses, which means that you earn money while you sleep. This is the ultimate manifestation of business sustainability.

 

 

We are endowed at birth with a mind, a body and a soul, as well as 24 hours every day of life until we die. Let us remember to train and engage those resources effectively and efficiently to continually work our ‘land’ so that we shall have plenty of bread to meet our hierarchy of needs.