We’ve only spoken a couple times over the years.
Especially when I mostly stopped writing for years we’ve been out of touch.
But just this week he popped up again in my inbox to share exciting news.
He’s getting married! And wanted me to know.
Congratulations to you and Glory, Isaiah.
Possibilities…
There are some 8 billion of us humans around the world.
It’s quite extraordinary when you think at some point the human population got down to around 1,280 what our species has become.
Even in just the last 100 years you’ve seen a miraculous leap in technology and our ways of living.
All around the world we are now connected and billions of us have been lifted out of poverty.
Still half the world lives on less than $10 a day and so much more is possible for our species.
Spreading possibilities
This is how Isaiah and I connected.
Somehow he came across something I put in the world and it connected with what he puts in the world in Nigeria.
Isaiah is a man of great faith and also great wonder shining light on all that is possible for people he serves in his community.
We’ve never met but across the world we deeply connect on these most meaningful topics of what is possible in your life and for all humanity.
It means something.
Investing here
I see the same with a venture capital CEO I work with whose firm invests in Africa.
He’s based out west but over decades has cultivated relationships and invested in the continent.
By all accounts Africa is the cradle of our modern species and there’s some 1.6 billion people here.
Many are still being lifted out of poverty and developing at a rapid pace there’s huge opportunity.
Opportunity that means something.
America too
This week I saw an old buddy I haven’t seen for years.
A bit of a theme recently people are coming through New York and I’m loving connecting with some of the old guard again.
Some 13 years ago he left a traditional hedge fund to build a real estate development company focused on affordable housing.
He’s no bleeding heart, not doing it just for the social good, but because it’s an incredible investment opportunity.
Doing good, doing good, it means something.
Families too
Another client has built an extraordinary wealth management business opposite to most of Wall Street.
Whereas most of Wall Street is still seeking to make your wealth their wealth, his business is built for the customer.
It’s deeply personal, this is what his family needed for protecting and growing their wealth.
Building for his family he’s built the absolute best solution to help other families.
Like another VC I work with investing in civilization, it means something.
A foundation
Like a client who has built a foundation that scales alongside their private equity firm.
So as the firm grows so too do the dollars that go to the foundation and into serving non-profits and people in the community.
Already in just a short decade of building their firm they have become one of the largest foundations in their industry serving at-risk families.
Again, we’re all capitalists here, building incredible business machines that also serve social needs.
It’s not just a private equity firm and foundation, it means something.
For humanity
Because it’s like a pro-bono client who is a founder of a couple non-profits.
When we first met I was shocked how much of her time was dedicated to “capital raising,” which in her case is meetings with wealthy donors.
She never started non-profits to spend tons of time raising money but to actually do good and over decades has built relationships with tons of wealthy capitalists who want to support what she’s doing.
This is the power of capitalism for uplifting the world and communities.
Doing things that make money and mean something too.
Means something
See what I’m saying here is there are tons of things you can do in your life.
Oftentimes you’re just setting out to do what matters most to you, like driving your career and business forward.
But behind this is something way more meaningful, way more magical is the progress you make and what this means.
“Just” serving you and your family is greatest meaning and so too is serving others around the world like what connected Isaiah and me.
Whatever it is for you, do it coz it means something.