You’re Allowed to Make Money
You’re Allowed to Make Money
One of the things I became increasingly interested in while researching The Minerva Manifesto was women’s relationship with money. Not simply how much we earned or what we charged, but the beliefs, behaviours and sometimes contradictions that appeared when we talked about making it.
Money is an interesting subject. We can talk quite comfortably about wanting a successful business, wanting more clients or wanting to make a difference. Saying that we want to make good money can feel rather different.
I’ve had to examine this in myself too.
Much of my working life has been about transformation. I like creating things that make a difference. I see possibilities, ideas and ways things could be better, and I have spent a great deal of my career turning those possibilities into something tangible.
That can be incredibly rewarding. It can also create a rather interesting relationship with business if you’re not paying attention.
When the purpose becomes more important than the business
When we care deeply about what we are creating, it is very easy for the purpose to become the priority. We focus on the people we want to help, the problem we want to solve or the change we want to create.
And none of that is a bad thing.
The problem comes when making money begins to feel somehow less worthy than the purpose behind the work.
I’ve seen this in conversations with women over many years, and I’ve recognised it in my own choices too. We can become incredibly committed to making something work for everybody else while giving surprisingly little attention to whether it is working financially for us.
We invest our time. We give more than we intended. We keep prices accessible. We add something else because it would be useful. We take on another responsibility. We tell ourselves that the money will come later.
Sometimes it does.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
A business has to work commercially
I have always believed in the importance of commercial viability. A business needs customers. It needs revenue. It needs to understand its costs. Ultimately, it needs to generate a profit.
Yet knowing something intellectually and applying it to our own decisions are not always the same thing.
There can be an odd tension when the work we do has a strong sense of purpose attached to it. We can almost behave as though there is a choice to be made between doing meaningful work and making money from it.
I don’t think there is.
In fact, I increasingly think the opposite is true.
If something matters enough for us to devote our time, experience, creativity and energy to it, then the financial model supporting it matters too.
Otherwise, eventually, we run out of something. Money. Time. Energy. Enthusiasm. Sometimes all four.
Money gives us choices
I think we sometimes make money far more complicated than it needs to be.
Money pays for our lives. It gives us independence and choices. It allows us to invest in our businesses, buy expertise, employ people, travel, learn, create new things and support the people and causes we care about.
It can give us the freedom to say no.
It can also give us the freedom to say yes.
And importantly, making money from our work means we can continue doing it.
There is nothing particularly noble about creating something meaningful that is financially unsustainable. If anything, a lack of commercial viability can ultimately limit the very impact we were trying to create.
What if purpose and profit belong together?
Perhaps the more useful question isn't whether we should choose purpose or profit, but how we create a business where the two support each other.
That requires us to look honestly at what we are building.
Is the business generating enough money for the life we want? Are we pricing what we do commercially, or emotionally? Are we continually giving away our time because we find it difficult to put a financial boundary around it? Are we making decisions based on what the business needs, or because we feel responsible for making things work for everyone else?
These aren't always comfortable questions.
But self-awareness isn't only about discovering our strengths or understanding how we like to work. It is also about becoming aware of the patterns influencing our choices — including our choices around money.
Once we can see them, we have choices about what we do next.
Make Money is there for a reason
When Do Business. Make Money. Enjoy Life. became the simplest expression of The Minerva Manifesto, the words Make Money were very deliberately in the middle.
You can love what you do.
You can care enormously about the people you work with.
You can want your business to make a difference.
And you are allowed to make money.
Actually, if this is a business rather than a hobby or a charitable endeavour, making money is part of the point.
I've come to see financial independence as something much more fundamental than a number on a spreadsheet. It is the ability to make choices about our own lives. And that makes the way we think about money worthy of considerably more attention than many of us give it.
Perhaps the question isn't simply, How much money do I want to make?
Perhaps it is also, What would making that money allow me to choose?
Explore The Journey
The Journey invites you to explore your own relationship with business, money, success and the life you are creating — and to become more conscious of the choices sitting underneath them.
