How great is your value?

By Njoki Karuoya

For a long time, I equated the worth of an individual with their financial strength. The more loaded the individual, the more respect I imagined he or she was entitled to.

And so I held in high esteem all those chief executive officers, managing directors and other top honchos with flashy material possessions, celebrities, religious leaders and politicians, who were driven around in big cars, lived in leafy suburbs and ordered everyone around them.

As a child growing up, you see the deferential treatment that such individuals are given. People get out of their walk path, they are led to the high table and given the best seat on the table, they are served with the best food that was not on the menu of the ordinary wananchi, and people bend and even kneel when speaking to them.

You begin to appreciate and accept that the world has individuals who are more equal than others. And the next belief that follows that thought is that such people are above the law and can get away with anything.

Giving value

Sadly, these individuals who are accorded much respect by society, have over time let the people down with their bad behaviour. Today, the wealthy are often regarded with contempt and suspicion as to how they got their wealth. We hear of businessmen and women who got rich courtesy of corrupt deals with Government or public officials. Politicians are constantly embroiled in scandals that show they did not get rich through honest means. Celebrities flash their wealth with arrogance, making the poor feel inferior. Even religious leaders behave like celebrities, showing off their possessions that they most likely acquired courtesy of the generous contributions from their faithful congregation, unmindful of the fact that those same people struggle day and night to make ends meet.

Enriching lives

I have now come to appreciate that the value of an individual is directly equal to the value they give to society; and it has nothing to do with material possessions or their bank balance.

I have met men and women who have enriched the lives of others just by their words and actions. Some of them are wealthy, but many of these great men and women don’t own much; they are generous of spirit.

Material success is not equal to greatness. Your actions are. If you were to die today, how many people would genuinely turn up for your funeral (as opposed to turning up because you are family or they are curious)?

If people were asked to write an epithet of your achievements or your impact in their lives, what would they say?

How many lives have you genuinely touched with your words or actions? How many lives have you destroyed with the same? Would you consider yourself generous or mean of spirit?

This is what makes a great man or woman, not their bank balance. I’m still trying to figure out which of these I am, but life is a journey and I know I can make a choice, just like you, to be more generous of spirit.