Get Rich TODAY

Not too long ago, I was picking up a few things at the Bigway, in Onoway, when I had an interesting interaction. I was standing in line at the till, when I could see in the corner of my eye, an older gentleman with a cart was trying to pass through the narrow lane behind me. I moved forward so he could pass by me, but then he turned his cart in behind me, bumping me with the cart while he turned. I didn't look directly at him, but my peripheral vision had noticed his gray hair, so I thought nothing of it. I figured he was just a senior who was half blind, with poor control. Most likely he had no idea he had bumped me. No big deal. Then as I was standing with my back to him, I felt another bump. I smiled to myself, and moved slightly forward, thinking this guy must really be losing it if he can't drive a cart. Hopefully he didn't drive himself to the store! Then came another bump with the cart. At this point I turned around to look at the man. I mean, two bumps could be accidental, but three? Not likely.

To my surprise, my 94 year old neighbor was grinning at me. He says to me, "I had to hit you with my cart three times!" I confessed to him, "Yea, I thought you were just losing it and didn't know how to drive a shopping cart!"

We chatted there for a few minutes, mostly about farming, and then parted ways with a handshake. It did me good to see him, a neighbor, an elder, and a fellow farmer, even if just for a few minutes. The modern hustle culture would say, don't waste your time with someone if you can't make a sale with them. You're never going to get that Lambroghini talking to the old timers!

Well, some of us aren't working towards a Lambo anyways. Success is having capital. And something our modern culture doesn't seem to understand, is that there is more than one form of capital. We tend to see capital as wealth, and wealth as money. But money is only a form of capital, because it is a tool that can help you survive, and sometimes even thrive, as you progress through life. It moves you away from poverty, which as Adam Smith said, is "the natural state of man". None of us were born with retirement funds, or even clothes for that matter. This is not to say some people aren't born into money. But money comes and goes, houses and dynasties are born and then die, just like people.

I believe the greatest form of capital is Spiritual, and a close second would be Social. For the sake of our story today, we'll talk about the Spiritual capital another time. If you're introverted like me, farming provides the perfect opportunity to be alone most of the time. Which sounds great! But the truth is we all need connection with others. If we are going to be mentally healthy, and wealthy socially, we need to spend time (even if just a few minutes at the grocery store) investing in the people around us. Money is not the currency of mankind. Time is the currency that we all trade in. And we need to decide which forms of capital we are going to invest our time into every day. And social capital has some of the best returns on investment. If we spend time building relationships, helping and serving our neighbors, and participating in the community, we will have a much fuller and more enjoyable life. And in the end, no one really cares about how much (or how little) you left in your investment portfolio. But they will almost certainly care about what kind of parent, neighbor, and friend you were in this life.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”

-C. S. Lewis