A Different Mindset

One particular relationship stands out to me during my time in Ghana. In my consulting project, I worked with Esther, one of the first Ghanaian

women who joined the organization. During these five weeks, I had the privilege to hear her story and walk a little bit of life in her shoes.

Esther’s story opened my eyes to a very different perspective on life…

The youngest child of nine children, Esther’s oldest sister raised her after her mother died shortly after childbirth. Esther went to school until she was 15 and then quit school so that she could attend a vocational school to learn a trade and begin earning money. Her uncle help fund her schooling, and Esther started sewing out of her sister’s apartment when finished.

She struggled for several years to save enough money to buy her own hand-powered sewing machine; a significant investment of 100 cedis (approx. $65). Slowly but surely, her business grew to the size it is today. Esther’s business is now flourishing, and she has six employees

and one apprentice working consistently.

By Western standards, we’d say that her store is an initial success. We’d start looking into additional production options, untapped market opportunities, and other money-generating expansion plans. We’d also start saving the profits for business capital and personal profits. Maybe save up for a car, new house, etc. Sound normal? This isn’t a bad approach, per se, but it is a typical Western mindset; our goals tend to focus on an individual accumulation of personal wealth.

Not Esther.

Even having a tough childhood, struggling through obstacles in her past, the thought hasn’t even occurred to her to spend the money she earns on enhancing the comforts of her own life. Instead, what is her passion?

Giving back. The minute she reached financial stability approximately two years ago, she founded her own NGO, a non-profit organization targeted at improving the lives of villagers by teaching basic handicraft skills. She pours all her time and finances into this organization, making countless trips to local villages, meeting with local businessmen, and establishing an initial training program. Mind you, this is a woman who never finished high school.

Her vision for the NGO is incredibly inspiring. She envisions this organization as a stable, international business that is financially viable, creating market

demand for products from multiple (10+) low-income villages throughout Ghana, positively and permanently impacting the lives of the women and—by result—their families and villages, while also sourcing national and international volunteers to build up the organization and business knowledge. (This vision was fleshed out and established following a brainstorming session that I conducted with her; see picture for result.)

Esther’s story and passion holds true for many of the women I have met here. I am in awe at these women; they are unswervingly passionate about reaching out and supporting other women to help them succeed as they have—but their definition of success is so different from America!

That is, once these women's businesses are generating enough profit to pay for food, water, and housing (i.e., basic life necessities), they start using the additional funds to help those much less fortunate. There's no aspiration to become rich, move into a bigger house, own multiple cars (or even one), or anything else similar to the "American dream" of material possession. Instead, they start an NGO to improve impoverished villages. Incredible.

This mindset has the potential to have an incredible impact on Ghana. Why are we in the Western world missing out on this impact? The people here prioritize relationships and “being” first; I’ve found that the Western world typically prioritizes stuff, money and “doing” instead. The Ghanaian priorities mean that life moves slower here, but is that necessarily bad?

During this project, I’ve been challenged to ask myself, “How would my life and the lives of those around me be different if I sought to put people first? How would my life change? And how would the world be different?” It’s a question worth pondering.