Inflation’s down. The stock market’s up. Economic updates make U.S. headlines every day. For Americans, economic health is a key part of our American dream.
But I spent part of my childhood living in the Peruvian rainforest and that experience still shapes me. I remember the smiles and the laughter of the Peruvian people I lived near, people who had very few material possessions. As a child I was unaware of the pain many of them suffered, but my perception was that their lives were defined by much more than their level of material wealth.
Maybe that’s why, during my interviews with Majority World leaders for my book Strong Together: Building Partnerships across Cultures in an Age of Distrust (to be released September 2023), I explored how they defined wealth.
A comment by Marigold Adu, a Ghanaian entrepreneur, was especially poignant to me. As she thought about some Americans she knew who were engaged in international development she offered, “Go ahead and fail. What you consider wealth is different from what we consider wealth or a good life.”
If we are to radically collaborate with people from other cultures, we must articulate our own values, seek to understand theirs, and consider the implications of differing values and goals. In my research with Majority World leaders, I heard push back against several American values including our heavy emphasis on individualism, efficiency, and material possessions. Majority World leaders instead emphasized values that require significant time to realize. These values include taking the time to build mutual trust with partners and encouraging hope among vulnerable people.
Majority World values may not be a direct path to economic prosperity, but they are a path to empowerment. And empowerment, many leaders told me, moves you forward on the journey to true wealth.
Originally posted by the author at LinkedIn (here) and posted here by the author’s permission