Money, Money & More Money

Greed. Often times masked by more more proper ideologies; hard work, effort, growth, entrepreneurism, betterment, provision, family resources…

I’ve told myself plenty of times, I took this job because I needed more for the family, but the truth is…. I wanted more for more, not because of any specific reason or altruistic quality, which is the tonic I had been feeding myself. I was in the pursuit of more and maybe this won’t come as a surprise but over the last 6 months I’ve been the most stressed i’ve ever been.

Six months ago, I received a job offer from a company I was working for as a consultant with another firm, it was a generous offer and the monthly over doubled my current monthly. I had let them know I can’t leave my current position, and would need a green light from my existing firm to straddle both positions, they agreed, I spoke to both firms and voila, just like that, I was in the running to have a part-time and full-time job across two firms that would triple my salary and with KPIs, do over seven figures in a year.

Was I living the life or what? Well, I was certainly sure of that in the beginning but slowly along the process, the money would hit the bank account and despite all the extra’s… I was feeling. stressed. Where did I make the wrong turn? What isn’t right about my day to day?

I sat down after 3 months and started taking emotional inventory, I felt… lost, hopeless, didn’t want to show up to work and the same tenacity they hired me for was missing in the work I was suppose to do for them.

Queue. Soul searching ended.

I knew I had the ability to grow a business and I had seen the evidence of my efforts in the previous firm, with tripling the ARR growth of the business, and launching them into a new category of scale, with double digit employees and systems to scale each department. So whats up then? Am I not Charles Menke? the guy who worked for free for a business and scaled to COO? Whats going on?

The man was the same, but the environment changed. I thought passion was work ethic and environment was pure ability. I had miscalculated the value of loving to show up to work and love the team I worked with.

Which leads me to the punchline. The most virulent and strong plants can’t grow in concrete, and the wisest leaders can’t change a person who won’t listen.

Challenges to grow to new heights are competitive in the right soil, but the tree who plants in a desert is simply fighting in the wrong territory.