May You have a Prosperous 2012

Prosperity.  Webster defines it as: a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, especially in financial respects; good fortune.  I say that prosperity is something that happens between a person's ears.  Yes, financial success contributes to a person's sense of prosperity, but so does family, faith, and self-contentment.  You can be prosperous and broke.  But our society too often equates prosperity with wealth.


Many people feel that prosperity is a right, something they are entitled to, or something that can be given to them by someone else.  The Occupy Movement is a great example of this belief.  They are wrong.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  The Declaration of Independence tells us that we have the right to pursue happiness (or prosperity), not that we have a right to be happy or prosperous.


Only a very few lottery winners, debutantes, heirs or heiresses are awarded their prosperity.  Most prosperous people have worked  to attain it.  If anyone relies on someone else for their own prosperity, they will be disappointed.  Governments cannot give prosperity.  Neither can those who are already prosperous.  


But you can learn about prosperity from those who already have it.  How did they get it?  They most likely started with an education.  They then applied what they learned to create value, whether by producing a product or service that others are willing to pay for, or by filling a role within someone else's enterprise.  Regardless, nearly all that have achieved prosperity have worked hard for it.  


So I wish you a happy new year, and a prosperous 2012.  But you will need to work for it.