If $$$ is the Compass, there is no Purpose

erin mcconlogue
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

Living in San Francisco it is so easy to be enraptured by the goal of financial elevation. We live in a noisy city where everyone is building something, capital seems to be falling off trees and it’s a race to the top. But what actually is “the top” and is it worth it when we get there?

Let’s take a birds-eye look at the Financial District versus the Tenderloin.

Keep in mind these districts are 1.3 miles or roughly 15 blocks away.

Financial District

  1. Number of residents: 60,976
  2. Average salary:
  3. Amount of venture capital in bay area

San Francisco tops the list with $8.5 billion in venture capital investment, or roughly a quarter of the national total. This is almost twice as much as Silicon Valley — centered in the San Jose metro — with $4.9 billion, or 14.5 percent of the total. —

Tenderloin

  1. Number of residents: 85,856 (37,000 are in low income homes and over 6,000 are homeless)
  2. Average salary for working population:
  3. $3.5 milion annually funded to social impact groups

This beautiful video by City Impact wraps it all up →

This post is coming out of a place of personal conviction. We mold to our atmoshere and I’ve found myself literally stepping over homeless people sleeping on vents on my way to work. I’m guilty of the same ear-bud saftey strategy. Everyone is moving so fast, face-down on laptops, meeting with investors, but what’s the point. Elevation only matters if we have a vision greater then us.

Money isn’t the problem, lack of perspective is. What do we value? Why do we build?

8.5 billion poured into Startups and 3.5 million into social impact groups…

In the Bay Area we have so many people starting things… It’s time to take a pause and fix some things.

Dares (for myself and for you :)

  1. Connect more. I heard of a friend who gives a dollar a day to a homeless person (not to actually give money but to force the humanity, make eye contact and ask what their name is)
  2. Focus on impact. We have to think bigger then our 9–5, bigger then the grind.
  3. Serve. I’m so convicted to help make things better in the Tenderloin. Ignoring it isn’t going to change anything.

Seek light,

-Erin

erin mcconlogue

Written by

inspired by the kaledescope of humanity https://lightseeker.co

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