For some time now I’ve been telling friends about this concept I have which I refer to as “The Money Flow Principle.” Despite the risk of it sounding a lot like hero-worship, I’ll let you in on the secret.

It was in 2003, when I was at Novell and was vigorously championing an open source strategy, that Novell acquired Ximian. Since I worked in Developer Services it wasn’t long before we engaged in conversations with Miguel de Icaza, one of the founders of Ximian and the driving force behind the Mono project, the premier open-source C#/.NET implementation. Since that time Miguel and I have kept somewhat in touch, or at least we have some vague awareness of each other. It isn’t like we hang out or anything, but we have a friendlike relationship.

Since that time when we first met, I’ve given a lot of thought to Miguel and the career he’s created for himself. I noticed, for example, that when Novell acquired Ximian (or sometime thereafter), Miguel was given a vice-president role — specifically, a role that did not exist within Novell at all prior to the acquisition. I marveled how, due to his affiliation with Mono, Miguel was virtually un-fireable. Even if he were to get “fired,” he would continue to be affiliated with Mono, would continue to lead the project, and would without doubt soon find employment elsewhere, still leading the Mono project. I’ve found it interesting to think that, if Miguel and I were to both attend Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference, he would be having lunch with Microsoft executive VPs (I know this because I know he has done so in the past), while I would be sitting anonymously at some table in the cafeteria. Yet I’m the one who works for Microsoft, not Miguel.

This is all the more interesting since it appears that Miguel didn’t strategically set out to put himself into this position. Rather, it seems that he simply set out to do interesting and valuable work and trusted to karma to see what would come of it. It seemed that, over time, the effort he made to create value caused money and opportunity to naturally gravitate toward him.

This leads us to the “Money Flow Principle,” which is simply this: Money eventually flows toward he who creates value.

The premise is sound and seems to hint of truth, and Miguel’s example of this principle in action is noteworthy. Perhaps you, like me, have come up with any of a number of ways that you could contribute to society, but you’ve withheld your contributions because you couldn’t figure out how you would be fairly compensated for what you might choose to contribute. Perhaps you, and I, need to internalize this concept a bit more.

This, by the way, is one of the messages of “Linchpin”, the book by Seth Godin which I wrote about previously. What gifts do you have to give? What talents do you have to share? What contributions do you have to make? What if you knew you would be well compensated for offering your gift to the world?

Maybe it’s time you stop worrying about whether you will get paid and start worrying about making contributions that are highly valuable, contributions that give you intrinsic fulfillment and help you feel pleased with your place in life. If my so-called Money Flow Principle holds true, eventually the money will flow towards you.

(By the way, I previously contacted Miguel to let him know I was thinking of writing this blog post. He was quite gracious and seemed pleased that I would consider it. Miguel, if you should happen to read this, I simply wish to express thanks for your friendship and example, and I hope the post doesn’t embarrass you.)