Quadaffi. Ben Ali. Mubarak.

Even if Quadaffi had 100 billion dollars hidden somewhere, and contrived to get to a safe haven – assuming Ocampo’s disinterest – and had a brilliant business idea, he’d still not go ahead to implement it.

This is because one starts a business with the presupposition that the growth of the enterprise will also mean the growth of the self. Meaning more people will trust you and join you in forming relationships that will help in meeting their needs and of course, your needs. And Quadaffi seems to have exhausted his store of trust.

Hence wealth has nothing to do with money, but with the amount of trust one has, and the trust he/she can elicit and continues to elicit over time.

Since trust exists in the context of relationships, it follows that relationships are more important than identity- identity alone cannot help you meet your needs.

Needs are at the center of being; hence being presupposes relationships of trust. But life is being. Hence living is experiencing, eliciting, and offering trust- meaning wealth; and the opposite, is death.

This is why Mubarak and Ben Ali are on their death beds, and Quadaffi, hot on their heels.