You Should Be Proud, Are You?
I have an important question for you: Are you proud of your role in your business?
You should be. Let me explain.
The US economy (people and machines) produces $56,000 each year for every man, woman and child, the biggest economy in the world.
The DR Congo in Africa economy produces $800 each year for every man, woman and child. For context, that number is the third lowest in the world.
Those numbers begin to tell a story of misery for the 70 million Congolese people.
Have you considered what separates wealthy countries from poor countries? In large measure, it is the ease of business formation and growth. Certainly, history, geography, and natural resources also play a role.
How can one explain why the Democratic Republic of Congo is rich in natural resources yet so poor in economic production? The answer is easy – the World Bank says the DR Congo is the sixth most difficult place to do business.
These facts and numbers are personal to me. For the last eight years, I have traveled to the DR Congo with teams of business people to help the Congolese start and grow businesses.
So Why Should You Be Proud?
Here are 6 reasons why business formation & growth is good for people and communities:
- Provides a place for people (employees) to innovate without owning a business
- Make innovations available to everyone in the community
- Hire employees and create goods and services that build communities and countries
- Pay people who can then pay taxes to support the government
- Pay taxes, which support the government and community
- Support charitable organizations
Let me leave the business owners with another question:
If you have employees who are really proud to work in your business, do you think that pride might influence the company’s culture, productivity, and profits?
A question for the managers:
Do your employees see your pride in your work and business? Do you see evidence of pride in their work and how they speak? Do they know how important their role is in providing goods and services to your community (and even our country)?
What is it that you do to remind yourself and your employees of the importance of your business? Share your comments in our contact form.
In the next post, you can read about why I am unapologetic about profits
– and why you should be too.
Being a Christian, I used to think that business was not as important as “spiritual” matters. No longer. The people of the DR Congo are dying to have entrepreneurs start businesses there, literally. Jesus and I both hate death.
I keep the picture of these children on my iPad as a reminder of the goodness of business formation – both here in America and in the DR Congo.
