Are You ‘Sharing Poverty’

In families, it is good to supporting your economic inactive family members. But remember that when you give, all that you give get finished sooner or later. They are just consumers. 

2)      Economic or Sustainable Giving. It involves giving with the aim of empowering or investing, for example education and training, business inputs, income generating projects, etc. You give once, but there is return sooner or later. If done properly, this is sustainable giving. It makes the people better and you do not have to repeat again and again. After using the resources, the people will have more than they started with.

Generally prolonged relief giving/aid makes people unproductive, lazy and poor! It gives people a temporary higher quality of life, but this high lifestyle goes down as soon as the aid is plugged off.

Be careful when you give to family, having some relatives with a poverty mentality can drain you back into poverty. Their aim is to share what you have, that is, what you have worked for and to enjoy the benefits of your labour.

Here is a poverty mentality check. If you tell a person that ‘this year I managed to make extra income, beyond what I planned.’ A poverty minded person will say, ‘Now that you have extra, can I have some of it?’ A person with blessed and productive mentality will say, ‘How did you do it? I also want to end up with extra cash like you?’ A poverty minded person is first of all a consumer, production is an afterthought

I will give you two illustrations.

Scenario One: Sharing Poverty

After a year of hard work Titus managed to amass an extra R5,000. This came through hard work and application wisdom. Now Titus has four brothers who are all struggling financially.

When he told them how much he achieved financially they all said ‘please let’s share your success.’ So Titus shared the R5,000 equally. Each one got R1,000. The four brothers were very happy and praised their hard working older brother and each one threw a party to celebrate. Because they do not know how to handle, or even create an extra R1,000, they blew up the money within days and end up on zero balance. At the end it’s only Titus who had his R1,000 share tacked away for future investment.

Titus was very sad, he had worked hard for the R5,000, but ended up with R1,000. He said to himself, ‘what’s the point of working hard when you end up poorer and miserable.’ And he planned to work less harder next year because ‘it make no difference.’ So the following year Titus managed to save less than R1,000. He knew what would happen, if he has excess money.

ANALYSIS: The total net worth of the family [of 5 brothers] went from R5,000 to R1,000. We call this sharing poverty. The second year, the net worth plummeted to less than R1,000.

Scenario Two: Empowering

Now consider this scenario. When Titus told them how much he achieved financially his brothers said ‘please tell us how you did it so that we can also do the same.’ So Titus set down and explained his methods. He also volunteered to coach them throughout the year.

At the end of the same year Titus was proud to still have his R5,000 and a bunch of motivated brothers. This motivated Titus to work even harder the following year, knowing that his hard work does not benefit himself only but can motivate others to succeed as well.

By the end of the second year, guess what happen! Each brother had R5,000 extra income. And the motivated Titus doubled his extra annual income to R10,000.

ANALYSIS: The total net worth of the family [of 5 brothers] went from R5,000 in the first year to a whooping R30,000, that is (R5,000 X 4) + R10 000. We call this empowering! You can guess what happened in the third year!

In Conclusion

Now, I am not saying do not give to the needy. But I am saying give with understanding so that you will not be disappointed, ending up with them stack in poverty. Be aware of people who will come and say ‘Give me R1,000, I want to start a project.’ When in fact their so called projects are in fact ‘garbage projects’ that will sink a hole in your pocket, and not their pocket.

Perhaps if someone asked money for a project, be shareholders in the project so that you make sure that you get your money back. Actually analyse the project first. If it’s a ‘garbage project’ throw it out right away. It has to pass the test. If the project is good, partner in a way that you have the majority shareholding. Are you not tired of being ripped off by people in the name of projects? Be wise. Learn from your past experiences.

So, how is your giving; sharing poverty or empowering?

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