By Scott Glasgow

There’s something that happens when adversity strikes that changes the way you look at life. This year, I was lucky enough to overcome that adversity with resilience—the ability to absorb, adapt, and transform.

It’s crazy to think about how different things were just a few months ago. I was working 80+ hours a week, jumping on flights to speak around the world, and not understanding the concept of work-life balance. FinMango had little focus and I was struggling to keep it all together.

But today, I got to look back on a year of wins, losses and learning and take comfort in the fact that we didn’t ever run out of money, and we did manage to mostly keep it all together. And thanks to a few lucky breaks—like smashing a world record, launching a collaboration with Google, and gaining national media coverage—we’re now focused and jumping into an incredible future.

With the year quickly coming to a close, I’m motivated to work harder than ever to solve the financial exclusion problem. FinMango can now be defined by three words: Data, Tech, and Advocacy. You can read more about the pivot here.

While I’m grateful for how radically different my life has changed during the pandemic compared to the average person, recognizing this is a reminder of how important it is to use the privilege and opportunities we are given to help those around us.

At FinMango, all we do is give. We give people the opportunity to influence the world, to work on projects that save lives, and be a part of something bigger. Much bigger.

And in our lives, we’re only given so many opportunities to do things like that ... most never even get the chance.

Overall, this year has taught me so much about resilience. All of the failures, successes, hopes, dreams, and disappointments that I have experienced have turned into important life lessons. I’ve learned about the importance of giving and of radical generosity. I’ve learned about integrity, respect, and kindness. I’ve tried to be generous with my time and I’ve tried to be of service to others. And as I look forward to the next few years, I can only hope that all these lessons I’ve learned can be used to help spur the potential of tens of millions more people around the world.

We have a lot of work ahead and we need to raise a lot of money to make it happen, but I feel grateful for 2020. I’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime and I’m running with it. I might be wrong, but I think the FinMango story has just begun… Let’s jump on the train!

Stay tuned and learn how to support our work at finmango.org.