When Prosperity Comes Knocking: How Will You Answer?

Money is an amplifier of both good and bad.

This amplifier has the power to change not just your life but the lives of everyone you are close to. While money is often celebrated as a source of happiness, it's not one. It's a currency, and it's up to you to choose what you want to do with it.

Money has done amazing things in the hands of amazing people and families, but it has also ruined many amazing people and families. For better or for worse, it has a way of revealing and even amplifying someone's character.

ML vs Monte

Take my great-grandfather, M.L. Bean, for example. He grew up very poor. When his father passed away when he was only 10 years old, he became the primary breadwinner for his family of 8. He became the epitome of the American Dream when he built a thriving chain of retail stores in the early 1950s in Seattle. Over time, he became a large retailer in the economically booming city.

He was a highly skilled businessman who achieved great success. His dedication to business filled him with an intense drive. However, it wasn't his stores that filled him with purpose but his family and his faith. He deeply loved his wife and children, prioritizing their well-being over anything else. He used wealth to deepen relationships and give friends and family fun experiences.

He found further fulfillment in the outdoors, eventually channeling this passion into funding a natural history museum that has prolonged his legacy of good. Now visited by thousands each year on a university campus, the museum features rich stories and encourages visitors to connect with the earth's environment. He allowed his character to be amplified by the money he received, and his positive impact was felt across generations.

On the other hand, his son, my grandfather, answered the call of prosperity a little differently.

Monte Bean took over his father’s business and grew it exponentially, becoming one of the biggest retailers in the country. He loved his family, but he spent every waking moment trying to build his business. Naturally, he became distant from his four children, unable to attend sports games or other activities. Years of constant distraction put a strain on his marriage, which ended in divorce.

Eventually, he sold his business for a large sum and, in doing so, lost his great purpose. Furthermore, a life dedicated to empire-building left him with personal, worldly wealth but with limited family relationships. His children scattered, many falling victim to the pitfalls and vices that money often enables. His second wife and two new children remained distant from his older children and friends. Though he had all the money in the world, he spent his last days in a nursing home, entirely alone.

The Choice

Their experiences were at the front of my mind when I walked similar paths in my life and career. I worked from job to job, learning where I could and always looking to improve. I had a clear purpose: to provide for my family. It was a challenge, but I enjoyed it and felt pride in my daily effort. Through trial and error, many failures, some luck, and much work, I experienced success when, together with an incredible team, we built and sold a tech company.

When I exited, my life reached a natural fork in the road as I considered meaningfully: who do I want to be? More specifically, how can I live a life like my great-grandpa and avoid the outcome of my grandpa? How do I structure my life to make sure that I make a positive impact in the world instead of succumbing to the pitfalls of prosperity?

​​As I wrestled with what the rest of life would look like, I realized I wasn’t alone in my conflict. So I started interviewing people and compiling stories from those who have “done it.” As I collected these experiences, starting with the stories from my own family, three overarching themes emerged as pillars for answering prosperity’s call with “Good”:

• Purpose: creating a personal direction and healthy relationship with oneself.
• Relationships: maintaining strong bonds with the core people in your life.
• Legacy: establishing a lasting impact on your family tree and community

Over time, I was able to combine the collective stories I gathered into simple frameworks and examples of those doing it right in the face of prosperity, organized along these three pillars. This library of content contains deliverables and experiences to help you implement lessons learned into your own lives.

We are constantly updating, learning, and collecting more stories to help provide a guide to the question: how will you answer when Prosperity comes knocking? My hope is that at least someone will find this helpful, and that these frameworks can help guide that person to answer with resounding “Good.”

If you are willing to share your story, I’d love to hear it. If you have feedback, please leave it. Together we can help everyone use money as an amplifier and ultimately be a vehicle for Good.