During this Christmas season, I had an epiphany which combined my favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” with our mission at my place of work, Notre Dame Federal Credit Union. If I were to try to summarize our mission as succinctly as possible, I’d say that it’s simply to do whatever we can to help our members achieve financial health. Why is this important and meaningful work?

Well, human beings are a composite of mind, body, and spirit. These components affect each other. Stress over money problems can lead to mental health problems, physical problems, and even a spiritual crisis. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey is a flawed but good man who finds himself in such a great financial predicament that he goes out, gets drunk, crashes his car, and stumbles to a bridge where he seriously considers jumping to his death before an angel is sent to save him.

Within the past days, the credit union’s executive team was made aware of how one of our members was at the same point of desperation. There is much to this story that I will not share, but this person wrote to one of our our credit counselors (collections) after the fact and said,

“I would like to thank you & appreciate your generosity, empathy in my time of distress. Honestly… you should pat your back because you saved my life. I was so suicidal… So thanks so much for reducing my stress by arranging that affordable payments for me when I was jobless…

…I have fully recovered even mentally & I start work next week… Again, Thanks so much for rescuing me & saving my life.”

To me, this shows how profoundly important it is for everyone – including our credit counseling team – to do their job with compassion. They must understand that they are dealing with a real human person with inestimable dignity and value who is much more than a number that will appear on our monthly board report.

To anyone who is feeling a financial pinch at the moment, I offer to you what my parents used to say. They were very big on paying their debts, making prudent decisions, and being financially responsible. But they would also remind me that sometimes stuff just happens. Then they’d say, “Don’t worry, it’s only money. There are much more important things.”

Let’s all try to create a world where this is the prevailing philosophy of business!