Low interest rates!!! Cheap money!!!  Prices are rising, the best time to buy is now, now, now…  Seriously hurry your happiness is tied to what you own and your stature is judged by your assets.  Live for tomorrow’s riches and keep up to the fear mongering headlines of self-worth by ownership.  On Main Street’s everywhere the conversations or implied pressures of purchasing what you cannot yet afford are evident.  These discussions soon started after I received my first 9-5 paycheque and while I was weary, I must now admit ownership is everything.

Businesses and employers worldwide need a motivated staff to continue growing their companies.  Amongst all the wonderful incentives, the most prolific motivator is money.  You and I both know a thousand reason why this is the case but what if your company can not offer financial incentives?  How do you get their best effort?

At TIMBERCOAST, we have been humbled by the outpouring of support for our sail cargo mission and the drive of our volunteers.  In the past 14 months, we have had over 100 volunteers from 25+ countries that have put their skills to work rebuilding our ship the AVONTUUR.  We provide food and accommodations to everyone that joins us plus for each day worked they receive a day of sailing.  While our vision to revive wind powered cargo shipping, preserve our oceans and offer sailing days attracts them, it’s what motivates them that we’ve found most interesting.

In a world addicted to material gains, it’s the intangibles that have laid the foundations to our growth.  We’ve had to relinquish control of our company and hand over the working ownership to our volunteers.  Our knowledgeable tradespeople teach those eager to learn welding, carpentry, rigging, graphic design and amongst all else enabling us to transform our workplace into a learning hub.  Furthermore, they work for themselves and take an honest pride in their craft.  Productivity and group camaraderie is heightened resulting in a healthier working environment.  That being said, we have had our setbacks and we continue to adjust to the uniqueness of building a voluntary community project.

Don’t be fooled, we continue to have our fair share of communication breakdowns, tears, continued financial stresses and frustrations but we’re all in this together.  This was never going to be easy and each of us here recognized that the moment we arrived.  We need to finish the ship, find more investors, cargo, trainees and sponsors which is no small task but we believe in one another and have the force of the TIMBERCOAST community behind us.

Material big ticket ownership is linked to security and a certain amount of implied freedom but is that everything?  Family, friends and health aside what drives us?  I can’t answer these questions for anyone other than myself.  I believe we all need social connections, we need community and we need a healthy environment… We need to take ownership over our actions because ownership is everything.