How to Keep Score

The Desert of Arizona
Clear 38 Degrees

Years ago, when I was a little bit more naive and far more asleep, I somehow took in the idea that, in business, MONEY is how you keep score.

For a while, that seemed like a logical statement. And for someone who was raised to believe that the pursuit of money was evil (as if ANY activity that harms no one could be “evil”), it seemed like a good way for me to rationalize my business behavior.

These days, I chuckle that I ever believed something like that.

For me, saying that money is how you keep score in business is just one of the most shortsighted things I’ve ever thought. I’m not saying it is shortsighted if YOU think it. I don’t know. But I DO know for me.

I’m not anti-money, but I am anti-scarcity. And I am anti-anything that is just a lie. And money in its current form is all about scarcity. It is all about creating some arbitrary vehicle that has value OUTSIDE of yourself. This, of course, does not exist. It is illusion.

But it is a convincing illusion. The minute you see someone with MORE, you start thinking about how you have LESS. Tricky little bugger.

For this “advanced” human race, we sure have created a little bit of a conundrum. Birds don’t pay to be on this planet. And every time I see a coyote outside my backyard, he seems to be just fine. No job to run off to, no bills to pay, no rat race to run. And he’s “BROKE!”

But in all of our brilliance, we’ve created this tool to keep people feeling scarcity where there actually IS no scarcity. And then people spend most of their waking hours chasing after this thing hoping it will fill the hole. And people think I’m insane.

The purpose of today’s little stroll through the world of money isn’t for me to tell you what to think. It is to remind you to figure that out for yourself.

How are YOU going to keep score in business? Is “keeping score” even important?

If you don’t keep score, then how do you know who’s winning and who is losing?

Is that REALLY why you do what you do?