I found myself with an hour to kill last night while the wife was in the bath and, for want of any other choice, turned to Channel 4′s “How the Other Half Live“. This series is about contrasting the life stories and lifestyles of people at the top of the financial heap and those at the bottom. In this case, the story was introduced by the children: two rich kids (8 and 13 I think) and the 8 year old daughter of a single mum.
I consider myself pretty liberal, but if you wrote down the story of this single mum (a “traveller” who brought up her child in a series of caravans and, even, a horse box) I would have written her off as a waster. However, this “waster”, determined to give her daughter a better future, took and passed a law degree (she got a first) but, due in part to the competition for places and in part to the fact that she didn’t go to a private school or have the right father, can’t get a placement as an apprentice and therefore cannot become a barrister.
The rich family was founded upon the success of a marketer – they live in a home in the Cotswolds with 7 acres (I think) and dozens of rooms. Their kids go to private school and, all in all, live in a bubble that doesn’t expose themselves to real life at all. The child of the single mother, on the other hand, lived in a small house and shopped in charity shops. Her mum was hampered by debts (some built up during her degree studies) and their future looked pretty hopeless.
It’s not my place to pass judgement on any of the people involved in this. There is some irony in the fact that the marketer himself left school with no qualifications and one of the moments of realisation in a programme full of such moments was when his 13 year old son realised that his teachers were wrong when they said “get an education and you will succeed” because, clearly, this hadn’t worked for the single mum (as an aside, it’ll probably be the fact that he went to private school that will secure him a good job rather than his academic success).
To their credit, the rich family ended up sponsoring the single mum to help her deal with her initial financial challenges and seemed intent on forming a long-term relationship. Part of the benefit from this is that their children will, hopefully, better appreciate “how the other half lives” (although, to be frank, sending them to the local comprehensive would have done the trick!).
This all left me reeling. As a businessman, my eye is on the bottom line at all times. Every job, potential job or project is evaluated for its potential to generate profit. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I do not live a palatial life but I became rather ashamed at my ambitions to, in time, move into a bigger house and realised that this was about competing rather than about what I actually needed (or even what would be good for me). I vicariously appreciated the satisfaction and joy the rich family will have experienced in helping someone to achieve her potential. And this got me thinking – what can I do in my businesses to achieve the same? I certainly don’t have a £9 million to spend but I needed to find a way to contribute.
I have some ideas: including creating specific “charitable cause” products alongside our existing product range on MakingYourOwnCandles.co.uk, and the idea is that we’ll support 2 or 3 small charities (chosen by our customers) with a specific amount per product sale. It won’t be huge amounts of money (which is why we want to support smaller charities) but by doing it this way, we can make our contribution as part of the normal running of the business. And the benefit to the business? A cynic might suggest it improves our public image and marketing but that’s not what this is about. It’s about doing something good – contributing to society in more ways than just paying our taxes.
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