2️⃣098: You Gotta Have Faith 🤟

what’s up, how you been?

You might’ve noticed I didn’t send an email last week. Like most Netflix subscribers this year I’ve been pretty busy watching Suits.

I’m not saying I didn’t send the email because I was watching Suits, but I didn’t send the email and I’ve also been watching nothing but Suits (and NFL football, of course).

I watched Suits as it was airing live on TV from 2011-2019, but I was missing out on a few episodes (and possibly an entire season). I couldn’t remember exactly where I left off, but I did remember it was one of the shows I’ve most enjoyed watching.

As I was catching up on the shenanigans of Mike Ross and the crew from Pearson Hardman over the past two months, one thing I never forgot has been front and center across the entire series:

Actually, scratch that, there are enough resources and money to do the right thing. It’s just that doing the right thing isn’t good for business. I don’t need to point out a specific case or scene or episode or moment for you to know what I’m talking about if you’ve watched the show. And if you haven’t watched the show, I still don’t need to give you examples to know this is something that happens in every day life.

In the show, one of the main characters (Mike Ross) always wants to take pro-bono cases where everyday people are fighting against businesses or powerful individuals taking advantage of them (pro-bono means when a lawyer does a case without charging a fee, usually for people with low resources who need help but can’t pay for legal representation).

The overwhelming majority of lawyers on the show love the idea of Mike wanting to help out the little people with no voice and no money, but there’s only one problem: It’s not good for business 📉

It’s not good business for a corporate law firm that is used to handling deals worth tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and sometimes billions of dollars to do a few cases helping tenants who are being unjustly evicted from their homes, kids who are getting lead poisoning due to a battery manufacturer, prisoners who are being taken advantage of for free labor, or even someone whose loved one died in a car accident and the auto manufacturer tried to cover up knowledge of a defect in their products.

I know hope the good part inside of you reading this is shouting, “Those people deserve to be represented too!”

If you are, I’d tell you I agree. Every single one of those people who have been wronged deserves to be represented and have justice served on their behalf (yes, even the prisoners, because if you think someone doesn’t deserve rights or a second chance simply because they are in prison you’re crazier than me for believing the world could be better).

But what if it’s not good for the bottom line?

What if we lose some business because helping the prisoners takes money away from one of our clients that makes profit from there being more prisoners?

What if one of our clients would drop us if we show the world that the product they’re making is actually causing irreversible harm to children who go to school near their manufacturing facility?

What if the person who owns the building that is unfairly evicting tenants has every right to evict them even if it means putting out elderly people and poor people on the street with nowhere else to go?

These are the conundrums our society faces on a daily basis.

The thing that is right to do by moral and ethical standards isn’t the thing that is right to do if you want your business to make a profit. To go a step further, the thing that helps one person profit and survive can only happen if someone else is screwed over.

Many people in my life would say that I’m a bit too idealistic, or even that I’m ignorant to the way the world works, all because I would hope that the decisions we make not only as individuals but as businesses and institutions would be the “right” decision. I put “right” in quotation marks because another argument that’s been used against me is that what is “right” is subjective.

But one thing I’ve noticed in my few years on this planet is that the people who argue that the “right” thing can’t be done for X, Y, and Z reasons always seem to be the people who stand to profit when the thing that is “right” isn’t the thing that occurs.

It’s funny how that works (not funny in a jaja or haha way).

When I was growing up I went to church every Sunday 🛐

Let me tell you, I did not like doing that.

Not just because the NFL plays most of their games on Sunday and I love watching football, but because I didn’t think it was a valuable use of my time. My mom (who is currently reading this) was the one who insisted on taking me to church. She still goes to church every week, and she still asks me to accompany her every once in a while on special occasions.

Now, I may not believe in religion, but that doesn’t mean I look down on others who consider it a very important part of their lives. As you get older, as you struggle, as life throws you punches not only when you’re up but also when you’re down (and then five more haymakers when you think there’s no way life could throw another gut punch your way), you realize why religion is important.

If we didn’t have religion many people would lose their minds.

Because sometimes it feels like everything in life is working so hard against you that the only thing you can do is close your eyes, pray, and tell yourself that everything is going to be alright because there is some higher power out there who has a plan for you.

So many people in so many places around the world lead such difficult lives that the only hope they get is from putting their belief of something better into the hands of something they can’t be really sure if it exists. Because sometimes you do everything right, work hard, make all the right decisions, and things still don’t go your way. Sometimes it feels like the harder you work to get what you want the more things go someone else’s way.

But when you have faith, you feel more equipped to handle the good times and the bad. When you have faith, the good times were always meant to be, and the bad times are just something you have to go through to reach the better times that are coming.

I said I didn’t like going to church because it wasn’t a valuable use of my time, and that’s because I didn’t think there was anything I could learn about being a better person from going to church. To me it’s always been pretty obvious what the right thing was and what the wrong thing was.

Does this mean I’ve always done the right thing? 

Definitely not.

Does this mean I’m always on the right side of an argument? 

Definitely not.

Does it mean I’m the person you should look to for figuring out your own morals and ethics? 

You could, but I’d hope you want to just take a sprinkle of inspiration from me and figure out the rest yourself.

I think I’ve had a not-so-loving relationship with the church my entire life because I’ve seen so many people who claim to be “religious” or “god-fearing” doing really shitty things on a regular basis. Being bad humans, with bad ideas, who tend do things out of selfishness and personal gain. But they throw up a bible verse or wear their necklace with a religious symbol and think it’s all good because they “respect” a higher power. A lot of people would read those last two sentences and tell me I have no idea what I’m talking about. Sometimes you need to make the decision that isn’t the best for everyone because it’s the decision that is the best for you. And you must look out for yourself and your family.

Sometimes, there’s no arguing that.

Which leads me back to my original conundrum—when can we do the right thing? Is doing the right thing even worth it? Can I be as successful as I want to be if I choose to always do the right thing?

I don’t have the answers to all of those questions, and I probably never will.

You should also never trust someone who tells you they have the answers to all of those questions. Just like all the different religions in the world, the answers to those questions could be different for every single person.

There is only thing I can tell you with complete confidence—making the right decision won’t always be the one that benefits you the most. Sometimes, you’ll lose money, time, resources, opportunities, and even people in your life by making the “right” decision. That’s a choice that every one of us has to make individually, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this.

But I can tell you that you will never regret making the right decision.

I can tell you the right decision is one that comes when you lead from a place of curiosity and understanding instead of judgement, hate, greed or revenge.

The next time you find yourself confronted with a decision that isn’t easy. A decision that makes you question what is “right” and what is “wrong.” A decision you need to make for yourself, to help you and your family, that might not be the best for others. The next time that happens, and I promise you it’s going to happen, take a step back. Give yourself a moment to breathe. A moment to think things through, observe all the scenarios and possibilities. Consult people in your life who love you and have your best interest in mind. And after you’ve done all of that and you finally make your decision, let it go. Live with it.

Harvey Specter will tell you if someone pulls a gun on you the best option is to point another gun right back at them or to think of 146 other things you could do to get yourself out of that situation. I’m sorry to Harvey Specter, but most of us don’t have the time or resources at our disposal to go through all of that. Most of us have to deal with many things in the moment that change our lives on a daily basis.

That doesn’t mean you give up and take anything that is handed to you. It means you have to prepare yourself for not always getting what you want or think you deserve. You need to prepare yourself to lose. Because losing is a part of life. But that means winning is also a part of life. Even when you feel like you’re always losing, it’s not going to last forever. Keep doing the work and making the right decision and the wins will come.

You just gotta have faith 🙏