Money Isn’t Everything

Joan Dugan was co-founder of a very successful company which she later sold. She then worked in the corporate world for a while, but eventually gave most all of her money away and founded an EoC-minded tutoring startup in upstate New York which she helped manage for over 2 decades.

Joan describes her disdain for a model of business that sees the accumulation of money as the end-all of everything. EoC provided a way to see that business could be much more than just making money.

Discussion Questions

1. Money is great, but money was not the main motivator for many entrepreneurs who became phenomenally wealthy. What are the other motivators that drive people to succeed in business, other than money?
2. Is money the main reason you want to be in business? What role does money play? Should it be the main purpose of business, or are there other worthwhile aims for someone to pursue in business?
3. EoC approach to business sees money as important to keep the business sustainable (you have to make profit to keep the lights on) but it sees money as instrumental to a greater purpose of bringing about communion and helping the poor. How is that different than much of traditional business?