Invest in people, not things
Right people add value. Possessions add cost, not value and always depreciate
Surround yourself with great people and value them. Tell them, show them, and do it often. Valuing is not simply patting backs or giving blue ribbons or bonus cheques. Valuing is to push them to do their best, refusing to accept poor work, asking questions that lead them to expand their own limits; pushing them to be the best that they can be.
Valuing is to be there for them when they need you, to do all this without any concern or thought about the returns because the effort is its own reward. As for other rewards, well do it and see.
Remember that your cell phone does not define you. Neither does your credit card, nor the seat you sit in the airplane. Your shirt, tie, underwear, handbag, shoes, or the car you drive (or are driven in) are all your possessions. You own them. You can give them away or throw them on the garbage heap. They are things, to be used for your convenience. They are not a ‘statement’ of who you are. Our commercial world is insane. Don’t fall into its trap.
Your character, manners, attitude, the smile on your face, the warmth of your handshake, the tears in your eyes, your knowledge and willingness to apply it to help others, your virtue, your wisdom, your piety, and the compassion you have for others – these are what define you.
You can’t buy these. You can’t sell these. These are not things to be used for your convenience. These are the things that make memories. They imprint themselves in the hearts of people in terms of how you used them and how they benefited those people.
They are what you will be remembered for; long after your car, cell phone, clothes, and possessions have all passed on either into the hands of your heirs or onto the garbage heap.
So remember, we define ourselves as we wish.
Disclaimer: The title is not mine but is a saying that I have always tried to live by.
Indeed very true . Sadly the world today judges a man with what he wears and possesses . Whereas the gold standard should be his manners and the way he values and treats people around him