“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Financial theory suggests that debt creates value. So,
I want to spend my life accumulating more debt...
...debt to friends and classmates for extending their talent to transform a slum into a thriving community
...debt to academic colleagues for shaping my ideas so they might be worthy of students hungry to learn
...debt to business journal editors for printing scholarship that illustrates how values and ethics are the bedrock of good business
...debt to friends for correcting me when I am wrong and pushing me forward when I lack the courage of my convictions
...debt to people of my own faith and other traditions for trusting that our beliefs coalesce around recognizing and building what is good
...debt to my church for giving me a podium from which to preach
...debt to my siblings and friends for sharing the miracle of their children
...and above all, debt to God for giving beyond the capacity to receive.
And when the day comes to settle my accounts,
I hope that together we have created lasting value
and I will have lent as generously as I have borrowed.
— Tom Doyle