What Is a Good Life?

Good health. A stable family.Sustainable wealth. Someone to love. And something meaningful to do makes a good life.

Growing up with a single mother who struggled to raise five children, I believed having both parents was the definition of a good life.

I envied friends and strangers who had both parents at home. I watched families do things together and wondered what it felt like.

Then I got close enough to some of those families. I learned that having both parents around did not always mean the home was happy. There was more to a good life than I had imagined.

I went to government schools. The classrooms were overcrowded. There were not enough teachers, and the infrastructure was poor. I believed that life would become easier when I reached university.

Then I arrived at one of the best universities in Tanzania. I was given a hostel room with twice as many students as it was built for. Many of the lecturers were ordinary, and some were below average.

At university, I believed graduation and a good job would give me a good life. I imagined receiving a salary every month and earning promotions every year.

Then I got a job before I even graduated.

I was welcomed by late nights, early mornings, weekend emails and selfish bosses carrying personal grudges into the workplace.

After that, I believed self-employment was the path to a good life. You could wake up when you wanted, work with the people you chose and do things your way.

Then I quit my good job to focus on business full-time.

I faced business losses, failed companies, late nights, loans and a future that often looked grim.

Through all these stages, one question kept following me:

What is a good life?

How do you know when you are living one? And how do you find it?

My definition of a good life kept changing. It depended on where I was, what I lacked and where I wanted to go.

But through all the hope and disappointment, a few things remained. They were always part of the life I wanted.

I now believe they form the foundation of a good life:

Good health.
A stable family.
Sustainable wealth.
Someone to love.
And something meaningful to do.

Good Health

Living with poor health is one of the hardest experiences in life.

Poor health brings physical pain, emotional damage and psychological suffering. It also puts pressure on your family, your friendships and your finances.

I am grateful that my childhood was not filled with health problems. But a few years ago, I started struggling with severe stomach pain.

At first, I was diagnosed with a rare form of ulcers. What followed was a long journey through medication, hospital visits and lifestyle changes.

I remember what my loved ones went through while trying to support me. I remember the number of pills and medicines I had to take. I remember how often I went to the hospital.

It still hurts to remember how much money I spent trying to recover.

That experience taught me that a good life must include good health.

There is much we can do to protect it. We can eat well, exercise, rest and get enough sleep.

These things sound simple. But we often ignore them until our bodies force us to pay attention.

Without good health, it becomes harder to enjoy everything else.

A Stable Family

Stable families are becoming harder to find.

Our culture has moved away from community and family life towards individualism. More children are being raised by single mothers or single fathers. Siblings grow up far from one another. Parents spend so much time earning money or building careers that they hardly know their own children.

For most people, the first experience of love and belonging comes from family.

A healthy family loves you before the world knows your value. It fills your emotional tank so that you can go out and share that love with others.

I was raised by a single mother. The effects of having an absent father are still with me.

My mother did her best to be everything to us. But she could not also be our father. One person cannot fully carry both roles, no matter how hard they try.

You cannot change the family you came from. It may have been stable, unstable or completely broken.

But you can change how you relate to your family today. You can also decide what kind of family you will build.

If you come from a broken family, you know what caused pain. You know what was missing. Use those lessons to avoid creating the same wounds in your own home.

If you come from a stable family, you already have an example to follow. You are fortunate. Use the wisdom you inherited.

Many achievements lose their meaning when you have no one to share them with.

Being rich with no family around can be lonely. Being poor with no family to support you can be painful.

A good life needs family. More importantly, it needs a family built on love, presence and stability.

Sustainable Wealth

Good health and a stable family provide a strong foundation. But lasting poverty can damage both.

Poverty lowers the quality of food you can afford. It affects your rest, sleep and recovery. It limits your choices and keeps you focused on surviving the present.

Poverty can also come between a family and its needs. Over time, financial pressure can erode even the strongest relationships.

Nothing good comes from remaining trapped in poverty.

A good life requires sustainable wealth.

This does not always mean becoming extremely rich. It means being able to meet your basic needs. It means having emergency savings and building more than one source of income.

Sustainable wealth protects you and your family from uncertainty. It gives you room to recover when difficult times come.

And difficult times will come.

Money cannot create a good life on its own. But the lack of money can destroy many of the things that make a good life possible.

Someone to Love

From my own experience, I have learned that you can have good health, a stable family and sustainable wealth, yet still feel empty when you go to sleep.

You still need someone with whom you can share your life and your love.

Family and friends are important. But they do not always replace the desire for a partner with whom you can build a home and a future.

A good life includes a loving partner who shares your vision, respects you and cheers for you.

When you go out to face the world, you want to return to someone who will embrace you. Someone who will listen to your stories, celebrate your victories and sit with you through your failures.

You want someone who also believes in building a stable family for the children who may come from your relationship.

Compatibility is one of the foundations of lasting love.

Choosing the right partner goes deeper than looks, religion, education, race or wealth. Those things may matter, but they cannot carry a relationship on their own.

When you love the wrong person, it may not matter what you do or say. You will always feel wrong, misunderstood or not enough.

Choose wisely.

The person you love will shape the quality of your daily life more than almost anyone else.

Something Meaningful to Do

There was a time when I dreamed of retiring young and rich.

I imagined having so much money that I would never need to work again. I saw myself lying on exotic beaches, camping in private forests and spending every day having fun.

When I quit my job at PwC, I took a long break. I wanted to be alone and think about what I should do with my life.

After two months, I learned that doing nothing can become exhausting.

I found myself writing about life. I started reading more and creating things.

After PwC, I returned to business and did many things for money. At times, I earned a lot. But something was still missing.

I did not feel that I was doing something meaningful for myself or for the world.

That is why I kept writing and sharing stories.

I came to understand that we all need something meaningful to do.

The work that gives your life meaning may not be the same work that builds your wealth. If one thing gives you both meaning and sustainable wealth, you are among the fortunate few.

Most people will do some things to earn money and other things to feel alive.

You may build a business during the week and write on the weekend. You may work in an office and serve your community after work. You may earn your living in one field while finding meaning in art, teaching, sport or faith.

When you find something that gives your life meaning, do not let it go.

This is one reason wealthy people create foundations, support their communities and explore hobbies or causes. After making money, they still search for something that feels meaningful.

We all need to feel useful. We need to know that some part of us will remain in the world after we are gone.

Conclusion

I have discussed these foundations in the order that feels natural to me. It is also the order in which I believe they should be given priority.

But life rarely follows a clean order.

Everyone is on a different journey. We move at different speeds in each part of life.

Someone may be far ahead in building wealth but struggling with health and family. Another person may have meaningful work and money but still struggle with love. Someone else may have a loving family but live under constant financial pressure.

Do not compare your journey with someone else’s.

This is personal.

Look honestly at where you are. Find the part of your life that needs attention. Then act.

You are not late. There is no universal destination you must reach by a certain age. There is only the life you have and your own definition of what would make it good.

Someone wise once said:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Until then,

May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be wealthy.

Watushule.