I have been fortunate to have been an entrepreneur for many years in the Joplin area, and while I have had many successes and some failures, one of the most valuable lessons I have learned is that it doesn’t matter how successful one is, being proactive about helping and growing my community is what really matters.

It is my aim to make each of my business endeavors successful and socially beneficial to my community, to give back, and act to better the lives of our vulnerable communities while increasing the economic opportunity of everyone.

Another way to think about it is, a rising tide lifts all boats. If a business owner invests back into their community they have the potential to change the personal economy of our most vulnerable, and to possibly affect change systemically through influence and example than what local municipalities, state and federal governments can do with limited or conflicting political will.

Most jobs are awarded because of who you know or what you know. Most crises are weathered because of our social support systems. If you don’t have social capital, or a social network in which to rely on for connections and access to economic resources, it is very hard to generate economic capital.

Even if we have significant valuable cultural capital, it is often our social capital that actually gives us access to economic resources. How many of us have overcome the pitfalls of life by relying on our social network for support and aid? Almost everyone. And I am no different.

Pierre Bordieu, a prominent social theorist in the 1980’s, was the first to recognize, above and in conjunction with economic capital, that we use social capital and cultural capital to increase our social position within society. Economic capital is easily understood as ownership of or access to resources (money, property, means).

Cultural capital is understood as what you know (knowing how to act or speak in certain social situations, having access to certain kinds of knowledge/specialties, and cultural competence).

Social capital can be understood as who you know (your social network). Capital conversion is at work when we use one or more forms of capital to generate more of another form of capital.

This realization helped me to develop my life’s philosophy of Social capitalism. It is the idea that if an individual capitalist uses some of their profits to invest in the betterment of their community and society.

Capitalism in that form becomes more sustainable, less exploitative, and in giving back to society actually works to generate more economic resources for everyone. It is the social contract that should and could exist for business and individual endeavors.