Money for Your Soul

“Some people are so poor all they have is money” Bob Marley

Money. I have seen it break up families, friends and marriages. I have seen it ruined lives and some even kill for it. We called it currency and it dated back 2,500 years. Back then they might have use precious metal, and in some culture, they used live stocks. It’s a fabric in our daily life. As for me, in my youth, I was trapped in the flow of currency. My upbringing was meager thus internally I always felt these 2 emotions: “I don’t have enough” and “I wanted more”. This pretty much sums up my mindset as a young man. I had only 2 quests and that was to satisfy this poisonous, endless thirst. Now looking back, I was not alone. We live in a culture that assign so much power and status towards money. Just simply look at the pop culture and the lives of the super athletes & pop stars. We use money to measure our self-worth and our competency. Does it really?

As I progressed throughout my career, the more I made, the more I consumed. My goal was to reach a six-figure income by the time I was 35 years old. Like most of you I was on this track to: earn more, spend more, save more, buy more, get more, have more…more, more, more more…so I can be more!

This all changed when I went on a surf trip in a remote island of Indonesia. There I witness a village that haven’t too many interactions with the Western World. The village have many Christian churches but they have kept their 1,000 years old traditions. I attended a wedding of a young couple. I think they were in their early 20 or even late teens. In their culture, the wealthiest family must sacrifice a buffalo, a cow or pigs to feed the entire village during the wedding ceremony. They measure wealth by the livestock which they possessed; however, their riches do not belong to the family, they must share it with the entire village. Their belief money is like a river (current=currency). One must let it flow so it can recycle back to their village. They believe if one blocks the flow of water, stagnant water causes disease, thus they learn to let go of any possessions and allow the currency to flow as it was intended.

We often think we would be much happier if we have more money. Our solution with most problems in our life can be solved with money. If that is true, please reexamined the mega rich. (remember Brittany Spears?). I know with absolute truth that is not true. One would think the rich would have peace, freedom and fulfillment if money was the answer.

I am not anti-money. I like money but I am not in love with it. I am trying to convey that how we feel and use money is a direct relationship to our spiritual self, freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Money has the only power that we assign to it (or block the flow of it). Some of us has given it more meaning & power than human life.

We start Kekoa Collective as an experiment to our current capitalist system. We want to demonstrate commerce can be good for the community and good for the people. Our aim is to let it flow through every channel of our business and let it water every patch of dirt it touches, let it enrich everyone encounters the Brand.

We want to reassign the current power of our economic system. We have been misdirected the power of money for decades. I truly believe this new Generation will help steer our economic system towards more consciousness.

When I see Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have donated 95% of their wealth back to the river of humanity, it gives me great hope and it inspires me to do the same with Kekoa Collective.

We don’t have to wait until we make millions to contribute to this river of flow. We can participate on a daily basis upon the choices we make every day.

Much Love! - Dewey Doan