Make Bread, Share Bread: Reflections and Lessons in Wealth from a Simple Loaf (With a Recipe, Too)

Baking bread used to seem like a complex and unapproachable task to me.

I'm not someone who bakes bread, I don't know how to do that, it requires skills and an innate finesse that I don't have.

These beliefs used to exist in me. They were not loud or easy for me to see, but they were there, lurking.

I relegated bread baking to a skill outside of myself, belonging to a superior class of human who popped out the womb with an apron and a wooden spoon. I created an identity separation between me, a non-baker, and them, the bakers. I saw my role as solely bread eater, consuming the bread that others had made.

One day, I decided to look up a simple bread recipe. I was baffled.

4 ingredients?

Flour, yeast, water, salt.

I had those things.

I went through the steps, skeptical.

Three hours later, I had a crusty loaf of bread. I made bread?! I was overjoyed. I suddenly crossed the line into the category of bakers.

I became a bit obsessed with bread at that point. Maybe not a bit, maybe a lot obsessed. I wanted to share bread with everyone.

Bread unlocked something in me: What if all of the things I've told myself I can't do because 'I'm just not that kind of person', were possible once I learned the simple steps?

What if making money was simpler than I was making it? Maybe I didn't need to be fully confident to move forward towards financial stability, maybe I just needed to acquire the ingredients, mix a dough, wait for it to rise, bake it into a loaf, and share it.

Each chapter takes you through the stages of bread-making, using a tried-and-true method. Step-by-step bread-making instructions open each chapter, followed by personal reflections on the theme. I draw connections between bread-making and wealth-building, concluding with an activity related to the topic.

If you are a poetic type, a neurodivergent type, a person who appreciates connections between seemingly disparate topics to illustrate a point, this book may resonate with you.