Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 6

O V E R A C E N T U R Y : B U I L D I N G B E T T E R B A N K S - H E L P I N G C O L O R A D A N S R E A L I Z E D R E A M S May • June 2016 5 In his essay The Promise of Free Enterprise, Arthur Brooks writes, “Earned success is the satisfaction and happiness that we derive from having dreams and working hard to achieve them. This is only possible in a systemwhere rewards are based on earning them rather than having the right connections, and where you have to please customers and not politicians.” Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, penned the missive as an assault against the misnomer that free enterprise and capitalism are synonymous with selfishness and greed – a necessary evil toward material - istic benefit. The system, maligned as immoral and a direct route to inequality and corruption is no such thing, he wrote. Instead, it’s a “moral imperative” because it enables those in a capitalist society to earn their success. As bankers, we have the opportunity to earn our success by pleasing customers and in turn, helping them earn their successes. We do so by providing capital, protecting their hard-earned assets and helping those assets to grow. Our work is the fuel of their dreams. The Colorado Bankers Association is solely focused on ensuring we can continue this incredibly valuable work. Its slogan, the cornerstone of a collective mission is this: creating a stronger economy and helping Coloradans real- ize dreams by building better banks. With everything we do, the board and leadership of this organization is wholly dedicated to ensuring a strong financial services industry that will fuel – and move forward – our state’s economy and its residents. In recent years, we have taken a number of steps to sup- port the notion of earned success, developing Smallbizlend- ing.org – a website dedicated to educating small business borrowers and matching them with potential lenders – to most recently making sure they can repeatedly use home equity lines of credit as sources of capital for their ventures. We maintain our fight toward the regulatory relief we need, to allow for amarket in which banks have the freedom to give credit where credit is due.We knowour customers are defined by much more than income statements and credit scores or boxes to be checked on loan applications. They are people who have the right, as Brooks writes, “not to be happy, but to pursue what makes themhappy…To determine what makes them happy and then go do it.” In banking, we succeed when our customers do – and vice versa. Our success is mutual and intertwined. Our work is targeted at a vibrant free enterprise system where our financial services industry thrives – so they can. That is what makes us happy and we will unyieldingly continue to pursue it. “Happiness is not about materialism or government re- distribution of wealth. It’s about defining our lives and our goals, and achieving happiness on our own terms. That’s the moral promise of free enterprise,” Brooks writes. I couldn’t have said it better myself. n Mark Bower CBA 2015-16 C hairman Home State Bank Banking on Earned Success