Mike Michalowicz argues that serving millions of people, whether as an athlete, surgeon, or volunteer, naturally attracts financial reward. He contrasts survival-mode work with purpose-driven work, claiming that genuine care and impact at scale create unstoppable energy that drives both income and meaning.
And maybe this is just my life experience, so I can't speak to others. When I'm in alignment with purpose, so I have a calling to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty. That's the term I use, but I feel so called to do it. It does feel like this unstoppable force. Yeah. Like I get up every morning. I could not wait to come in today and record the podcast. I'm like, oh, we may impact someone here. Right. I can't wait to write a book. I can't wait to do these things. There's an energy. In the past, I think it's running away from struggles. Like I got to just earn money so I don't struggle. You don't run that fast, but when you're running towards something, when you're getting pulled in almost magnetically, it's this energy that I can't equate to. And this might just be my my story, the money finds its way. You still gotta work really hard to figure out how to do it. It's not like magically it just appears in your hip pocket. But when you're really of service because it's really of purpose to you and you're really caring for other people, money comes in. A connection's made. There was an author who says, if you wanna make millions, serve millions. I wanna expand on that. If you care for millions or contribute to millions, you will make millions. These athletes, it frustrates me when someone says, oh, you know, athletes can make so much money, they don't deserve it. They're entertaining millions of people. They're giving people an outlet of expression and relief and joy and happiness and sometimes frustration when it's the Hokies. My God, you guys got to win. But they deserve that money for how they're serving millions. I want to expand that we can also serve individuals deeply, maybe millions of layers deep. That doctor who's doing that heart surgery that saves someone's life, also she deserves millions. And maybe the person who volunteers at the local food shelter is impacting their community. That's millions of that. And maybe the compensation won't be financial, but it'll be the gift of recognition and reward that they just give themselves, the good feeling.
