The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do

she can send her kids to school—is she poor? I don’t say
this to make light of those who live on next to nothing, nor
do I want to minimize the luxury from which I am able to
write this. But what I have learned, not from the suburbs but
from the slums, is that poverty is more than a context. It’s a
mindset. I have met rich people in some of the poorest parts
o f the planet and I have met bankrupt people living in
million-dollar homes.
Sam isn’t going to be poor, if we can even call him that,
for long. He has the opportunity, the means, and the will to
change his life. His demeanor was different from the vibe I
got entering the slums of Kampala. That was a different kind
of poverty; there was little hope there. But in Sam’s eyes, I
saw something I wanted, something powerful and
infectious. His dream was not for him; it was for his family.
And that gave me hope. If Sam can find meaning and
motivation in rural Uganda with nothing more than a hoe to
farm and a shack to start a business, then what’s stopping
you and me with all the tools at our disposal? How do we
take a calling, however extraordinary or ordinary it may
seem, and do as Sam has done? How do we turn our work
into something generous?
Our circumstances rarely dictate what we can do with
our lives, and that man who was making a life for himself
and his loved ones in the African bush taught me more than
any millionaire ever could. For him, the work is both the
means and the end to a better life. He’s doing what he loves
and doing it for the people he loves.