Money with meaning
- Business
- Written by Denise Oliver
Are you ready to talk about money? Not in the awkward way people usually talk about money. Not in the “here’s how I made six figures while drinking coffee on a beach” sort of way.
Just honestly.
Because money conversations in business often seem to swing between two extremes.
On one side, there’s the message that more is always better – more revenue, more growth, more sales, more scale. As though the ultimate goal of every business is to become as big as possible.
On the other side, there can sometimes be an uncomfortable suggestion that wanting money is somehow less noble or spiritual than wanting to help people, as though purpose and prosperity are competing interests.
Neither perspective feels particularly helpful to me.
Most women I speak to aren’t obsessed with becoming millionaires and neither are they interested in struggling unnecessarily.
So what do they want?
Well it would seem they want their businesses to work, they want to make a meaningful contribution in some way, they want to be paid fairly, they want financial stability, they want choices not assumptions and, quite frankly, that all seems entirely reasonable to me.
Yet money is one of those subjects that carries a surprising amount of baggage.
Some of us grew up hearing that money was scarce, that it didn’t grow and trees, as my mother was often heard to say.
Others learned that money was difficult.
Some learned that helping people and earning well were somehow opposite things.
Others learned that talking about money was impolite or at the very least a subject best avoided.
No wonder the subject feels complicated.
But perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.
Perhaps the question isn’t, “How much money do I want?” At least not initially. Perhaps the better question is, “What role do I want money to play in my life?”
Because money itself is surprisingly neutral. It’s what money makes possible that matters. Here are some maybes that I’m sure you’ve considered yourself:
- Maybe money means freedom
- Maybe it means security
- Maybe it means fewer sleepless nights
- Maybe it means taking time off when you need it
- Maybe it means supporting your family
- Maybe it means investing in your community
- Maybe it means having choices
I don’t believe that the amount is the whole story. Instead I believe that the meaning we attach to it is. And yet business culture often talks about money as though bigger numbers are automatically better numbers. But are they?
Actually, that’s a very good point to pause on, because if someone doubled their income but halved their wellbeing, would we automatically call that success?
If someone built a larger business but had no time to enjoy their life, is that the outcome we’re aiming for? If someone earned more but felt constantly overwhelmed, have they really gained what they hoped to gain?
Perhaps… or perhaps not.
Which is exactly why these questions matter.
At The Enrichment Collective, we’re interested in conversations that go beyond the numbers. Not because the numbers don’t matter. They do. Businesses need income. Women deserve to earn well because financial stability matters.
I believe that money is a tool – not a personality, or a measure of self worth, or proof that you’re doing life right. A tool that can help life feel way more comfortable.
And once we start seeing it that way, a different conversation becomes possible.
One that asks not just how much, but why. Not just what for, but what kind of life are you trying to create? Because the answer will be different for every woman.
And that’s exactly as it should be.
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The Enrichment Collective is a community and business growth space for introverted, quietly ambitious women who want to build successful businesses without sacrificing their wellbeing, their values, or the life they actually want to live.
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