A Wealthy Man in Church - - - or "Ummm . . . Seriously?"

I am engaged in a rather enlightening and challenging voyage of personal self-discovery. I recently decided to commence what my wisest of friends have affirmed is an act of courage. It is just this: To realize that I cannot do it alone, and that I must ask for help.

My non-profit, the Hudson Education Center (HECMusic.org) is an innovative after-school program that develops local youth into teams of performing artists that go out into the community, sharing their gifts at senior retirements residences, youth camps, and highly specialized schools for special needs students. Our young members gain leadership and team-building experience. They get better as performers, and build their resumes.

My Board of Directors is excellent. We are growing. And ultimately we will go into other areas: environmental education, local economic development. We will serve public schools, private and charter schools, even home schools, with self-funded teaching resources that can create highly-qualified team-teaching environments in schools and programs that are constantly being de-funded.

Great idea, right?

It depends on who you talk to.

At the present time, my role as Managing Director of HEC involves a lot of hours, at a very low pay rate. My heart and my passion is in building HEC. I believe that my unique gifts are very well-utilized in building these programs. I believe that, by following my heart and my gifts, the rewards will follow. The Lord, that can count the decreasing number of hairs on my head, notices, and He will take care of me.

As my hours go up, and my hourly rate goes down, my bills do not change at all, and if they move in any direction, it is "up." And this is where the "Ask for help " comes in .

I spoke to a pastor. I spoke to some of my board members. I asked a Christian friend or two. I looked at what the experts say. And the consensus is . . . "Ask for help." The decision made, I felt liberated. Within five minutes of making the decision, and telling a confidante about it, one of my creditors came to me and told me they were canceling my debt, so that I could take care of my bills and build the Hudson Center. This person did not know about my decision.

So, at this point of early momentum, I went to someone that knows how to grow money: a banker, a friend, and a leader in a very large local church. With enthusiasm and a positive outlook, I told him, in our initial phone conversation: "I need help, and would like to meet with you for advice." My goal was to get some ideas from him on increasing the cash into HEC. But before I could finish my sentence, he said:

"The first thing you've got to do is get a job."

Huh? I have a job.

I selected this kind (or so I thought) man, because I thought he understands money. I know that he and his circle of professional contacts could have financed one month of our operations with very little sacrifice. They can help us build awareness of our programs. They can do a number of things that don't involve writing a check!

But I was floored.

A man that can personally ensure the success of a $1 Million capital improvement campaign, can't even entertain helping raise a couple hundred dollars, for a program that operates without a facility, but that is specifically focused on living, breathing, thinking, loving, needing, hurting, senior citizens and children. And it is done through the gift of . . . music.

Help me understand.

Network Marketing, and Me

Well - I started this blog with a lot of specific details about a network marketing program I was active in some five years ago. The company in question is now immersed in legal troubles with several state attorneys general. I think the Federal courts are involved, as well.

My first draft told of my general belief in the value of well-run network marketing companies. I shared my vision that network marketing is a wave of the future. When they get the kinks worked out (and nobody has yet, really), it will be something that is very present in every household. It will become the most efficient way to spread around the wealth of the American economy. But that's another topic . . .

But as I read through it, I realized that I was telling too much. A class-action lawsuit is in process, and the World Wide Web is no place for me to start getting all candid about my experience in the matter.

Here is my position:

* Network Marketing is an excellent model, if it is built around a good product and/or service, if people are valued, and if their talents and passions are honored.
* The company I joined five years ago had what appeared to be an excellent mix of legitimate products.
* My approach was to stress product and develop market presence. We would recruit others once we had too much business for us alone to handle.
* My team grew, rapidly, around that approach.
* I was told by the higher-ups to cease and desist. They basically warned me, that if I continued to talk about product, and not focus on recruiting people, they would make it so I would fail.
* They undermined me to my team. They warned them all, likewise, not to listen to me.
* I got out.
* Now today, five years later, the company is being investigated for operating a Ponzi scheme that, you guessed it, was more focused on recruiting than it was on selling products.

Can you tell that I feel vindicated? I'm not sure where to go from here. But here, on this blog that nobody reads, is my statement that hopefully summarizes my position: where I started, why I did what I did, and why in the end I think I was right and a whole lot of wealthy people were wrong.

If I had been supported in doing it my way . . . it is my firm conviction that the plan would have succeeded. But now we'll never know.

Music, Ministry, and Teaching

I was talking to an elder, or steward, or some other type of leader in the church, about young people and their career choices.

I said "I always tell kids to consider ministry, teaching, or some career that develops their talents, as in music." Before I could finish the sentence, his face took on an expression of clear disdain and effected good humor.

"Well, you've got to be realistic."

I said, "There will always be a need for more ministers. And we do not have enough good people going into teaching. And nobody likes second-guessing their career choices at mid-life." The meeting ended on a awkward "agree-to-disagree" kind of note.

I heard about an adult Sunday School class, where the same topic came up. The group was asked the question:

"What would you do if your child told you they were considering the foreign mission field?"

The consensus response was "I'd try to talk her (or him) out of it."

Uh-huh.

You've heard of the "Culture of death?" Well, we have an equivalent problem - the "Culture of Life." We say one thing, but act like this life is all we've got. We act like things are so good in the world that we all can afford to have our cushy six-figure incomes, our early retirement, and our $10,000 vacations.

Be realistic? Here's reality: global starvation in the tens of millions. Epidemic rate of latch-key kids. Employees (and spouses, and friends, and parents, and children) that are less important than my own "quality of life." 

Yet we're all headed to the same place. If you really have faith that there is life beyond this one, then why are you so obsessed with having this home, that vacation, this car, that expensive toy? I think that you supposedly believe that you will get all of that, and more, in the next life?

Ministry - If you are a Christian, or any religion, for that matter, it's supposed to be the highest calling, to lead a life devoted to serving others (which is what ministers are supposed to do). Why therefore, don't we first say to our young people: "Please be sure to consider the ministry, or mission field."

Teaching - An ancient figure, Aristotle, maybe, said "The two questions are: Who is teaching the children, and what are they teaching them?" You can't complain about public schools, while urging your talented (and possibly gifted as a teacher) child to take up a career that "pays better." We should be disappointed when our kids don't want to teach. 

Music (or other talent) - Come on. It's the Information Age. All you need are about a thousand fans, globally, in order to make a living in music. And speaking of "quality of life," why do we kill ourselves in the search for it, and then urge our children, who bring so much joy to others with their artistic gifts, to snub those gifts until they have enough money to do all they want to with it (i.e., when they're too old to be as effective any more). Become your child's biggest fan and promoter! Help him or her create a non-profit built around their talent and passion. The tools are there. And there's no business like the arts - where the only asset you need to bring to the start of the business is yourself, and your gifts. What's unrealistic about that?

I think it speaks to an insecurity on our own part, that makes money our true idol, despite what we profess to believe about it.