When I was in High School I went to visit a friend’s family in Lagos, Nigeria.

The father owned a bank and was very well off.  To give an example, Lagos was (is?) so congested some days only even numbered license plates could drive, the rest odd.  My friend’s father had two Mercedes one with even license plate one with odd so he could drive every day. Or more correctly, be driven.  He had a driver.  He also had a cook, a groundskeeper,  a nanny, security guards (they may have simply been police officers) and other people who just seemed to be there in the house/compound.

As an American my first thought was wow, how extravagant to have all of these “servants.”  Somehow the conversation came up and he explained that because the good fortune of his success and wealth, it was his responsibility to give back to the community and hire as many people as he could.

That perspective has always stuck with me.  We could use a little more of that in the world today.