We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
— Sir Winston Churchill
The Wharton Alumni Magazine published an article about my fellow
Whartonian Jon Huntsman, who has a sign in his office that reads, "The
greatest exercise of the human heart is to reach down and lift another
up." Huntsman runs the largest privately owned chemical company in
the country, Huntsman Corp., with more than $5 billion in revenue and
over 10,000 employees.
In 1998, Huntsman gave $40 million to The Wharton School, the
largest gift ever made by an individual to any business school anywhere
at that time. That followed a gift of $100 million to the University of
Utah, establishing the Huntsman Cancer Institute to identify genetic factors
leading to cancer. In 1998 alone it's estimated the Huntsman family
gave away $70 million or more (beyond the Wharton gift), and they
continue to give. But even when he had very little, Huntsman and his
new bride gave about 20% of their monthly paycheck to help a needy
family in the neighborhood.
Jon Huntsman is a prime example of
someone who gives and gives; yet he
reaps the reward of that giving, which
includes personal satisfaction and
additional monetary gains. Yes, that's
right. A man and his family and his
corporation continue to prosper
because giving is at the top of their list
of responsibilities. They recognize you
can't put anything into a container
that's full, so they continue to empty
their monetary container, only to find
it refills at an ever-faster rate.
"By giving you grow."
— Sir John Marks
Templeton
Giving your time, talents, and
money is one of the secrets to building
wealth. Great men and women
throughout the world over time have
proved it. Sharing your wealth, in the
broadest sense, is an opportunity to
change things for the better, including
a tremendous internal gratification
from helping others. It really is true
that what goes around comes around.
One of the greatest giving stories I
ever heard was about Olympic champion
Charley Paddock, who won a
gold medal in track and field in 1920.
Paddock believed in himself and in
the potential of others, regardless of
circumstances. While speaking at a
high school commencement, a sickly,
frail, spindly-legged boy named James
(age 13), the son of an Alabama sharecropper,
said to the great champion, "I
want to be a gold--medal winner just
like you."
Born in 1913, James Cleveland
Owens, because of his ill health, could
rarely if ever help his family pick cotton
and tend to other chores. With few
job opportunities and near starvation,
the family eventually moved to
Cleveland, Ohio, where James
changed his name to J.C. When he
entered grade school the teacher mistakenly
wrote down "Jesse" instead.
In 1935, J.C. traveled to Michigan
with a bad back (so painful, his coach
almost talked him out of attending) to
participate in the annual Big Ten Track
and Field Championships. The New
York Times reported that J.C.'s performance
that day was "the greatest in
track history." In under 45 minutes,
J.C. tied the world record for the 100-
yard dash, and broke the world longjump
record and the world record for
the 200-yard dash. And that wasn't all.
He set another world record in the
220-yard low hurdles, all in the space
of less than 60 minutes.
Of course you probably realize
we're talking about the great Jesse
Owens, a black American who won
four Olympic gold medals the next
year in Berlin and set a long-jump
record that stood for 25 years.
But this is not all the story, and it
expresses how giving never ends.
Despite the fact that Jesse Owens, a
great champion and human by anyone's
standards, eventually went bankrupt,
before recovering he inspired
another young man just as he had been
inspired as a youngster. That young
man, Harrison "Bones" Dillard, tied Jesse Owens' Olympic record
in the
100-yard dash in 1948.
Jesse Owens was barely recognized
for his enormous struggles and
achievements during much of his lifetime,
but finally President Gerald Ford
awarded him the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1977. Two years after that,
President Jimmy Carter presented him
with the Living Legend Award. Ten
years following his death, Jesse Owens
was bestowed the Congressional Gold
Medal, a true reflection of his talents
and gifts to others.
The More You Give, the
More You Get
Years ago as a teenager I read a wonderful
story in Guideposts magazine
about Joseph Colgate, founder and
forerunner of Colgate-Palmolive and
Colgate University. Mr. Colgate's business
was so successful he quickly
turned into a multimillionaire and
decided he had far more money than
he needed. So he started giving it
away.
He first gave away 10% of each
year's income, but after he started, his
income multiplied. He then upped
the percentage to 15, and the same
thing happened again. Next he gave
away 20% of his income, but money
poured into his coffers like water
through a broken dam. After studying
his "problem," Mr. Colgate finally
chose to turn his money over to a
foundation and let others figure out
what to do with it. Giving away his money created a giant hole, which
was continually refilled with even
more money than before.
The great successes operate under
this amazingly simple formula:
100% of your monthly
after-tax income
- Money for you and your family's
financial future
- Money to give to causes and
organizations you want to support
- Money for fun
= Money to pay all other expenses
We know that we must pay ourselves
first in order to become
wealthy, but what you may not understand
is that you must pay those in
need first as well to become truly successful.
If you set aside a percent of
your income for yourself, also set
aside a percent for charities, your
church, or causes and organizations
that you believe in. Joseph Colgate
and many others have proven this
throughout history. Don't just wait
until the end of the year and "see how
much is left to contribute." This is not
how you pay yourself is it?
Contributing to others must be as
important as paying yourself. Build it
into you financial plan from the
beginning.
"We receive freely when
we give freely."
— Author Unknown
I am often reminded of the story
about a deep well with the purest,
best-tasting water anyone for miles
around had ever tasted. For generations
the old well served all the
descendants of a farming family and
anyone else who wanted to partake of
its goodness. Through drought after
drought, the well always provided all
the water the farmer, his family, and
his animals ever needed. Not once did
it ever run low.
During the Great Depression hard
times hit, and the farmer had to sell
his farm and move. The property
stayed empty and the well unused for
many years until finally a new family
bought it. Even though they came from
another county, they knew the reputation
of the old well and its water.
When the new family moved in and
rushed to the well to sample its contents,
they were shocked to find it completely dry. In great disbelief, they
stared at each other and realized the
terrible investment they'd made buying
a farm with a dry well.
What they hadn't realized before
they made the purchase was that a
well needs to be used to keep the
water flowing. The thousands of tiny
rivulets that flow into the well's cavern
will stop up just as blood will not
circulate if veins and arteries become
clogged through lack of movement or
fat buildup.
And so it is with money. To do the
most good, to help the most people,
money must flow. This is a critical
wealth-building component.
Clint Murchinson Jr. the famous
Texas wildcatter, had the right attitude
about money. "Money is like manure.
If you spread it around, it does a lot of
good."
James Redfield, author of The
Celestine Prophecy, also had the right
attitude. His book sold more than 3
million copies despite the fact that the
plot was called "flaky" and all other
sorts of unflattering names.
In a fall 1994 interview, Redfield
said that when you view money as a
scarce resource, you are locked into a
scarcity mentality. "No matter how
tight money is for you, if you don't
open your hand and make it available,
it'll be hard for you to get more. When
you give, you create a void [like the
old well] that is filled again. And [like
Joseph Colgate] you always receive
much more."
Redfield first self-published 3,000
copies of his book, gave up his therapy
practice, and he and his wife traveled
across the Southeast selling copies of
the book. He sold 150,000 books that
way before cutting a deal with Warner
Books. Redfield made so much money
so quickly he and his wife had to set
up a foundation to get rid of it.
"He who sows sparingly
will also reap sparingly,
and he who sows bountifully
will also reap
bountifully, for God
loves a cheerful giver."
— 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
A prudent farmer doesn't dispose of
his entire crop but always sets aside
some of the grain for seed. When you
give a certain percentage of your
income, alongside your time and
skills, you can consider this "seed" for
another harvest. If you don't plant
tomatoes, none will come up. If you
don't fertilize your lawn, you know
what it will look like.
Perhaps the best result of giving to
others is that is brings a true sense of
joy, accomplishment, and peace. In an
uncertain world, isn't that feeling
worth everything? Is there any greater
gift than to help others?
Good things, often unexpectedly
great things, happen when people
with a giving attitude "empty their
glass." Only a completely empty
glass can be totally replenished. One
of Jesus' most famous parables is
about the poor woman who gave her
last two coins to help others. She
trusted that even though she had no
money after making the gift, her
needs would be met. And we find
that's true with giving in our own
lives as well.
We must gladly give to people who
are in need without asking anything
in return. The more we give, the more
we are rewarded, frequently in ways
never anticipated. The saying, "What
goes around comes around" is not just
true, it's essential to success. We are
all part of a giant circle, some 6.5 billion
of us, and each one has a part to
play. Every person has a way to serve.
Serving is what being human is all
about. To serve is to give. The more
you give, the more you get. The hand
that gives gathers.
The world's greatest givers are
largely unknown. They don't give for
recognition or publicity. They are
simple people from simple beginnings,
yet they teach us all what the
true meaning of "giving" is...
Sir James Barrie
Bet you don't know who wrote the classic Peter Pan. Give
up? It was Sir James Barrie in the late 1920s. Just before
the onset of the Great Depression, Sir James announced
that all royalties from his monumental work would go to a
certain London children's hospital. He admonished that the
amount of his gift would never be revealed, although today
it is perceived to be one of the largest gifts of its time.
Helena Houston
In early 2001, Helena Gabriel Houston, a graduate of the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro who taught
fourth grade in Charlotte, North Carolina for more than four
decades, announced a $1.3 million gift to her college alma
mater — the same school that loaned her money so she
could attend so many years before.
A woman who grew up poor, Houston gave birth to a
scholarship fund for 8 to 12 students each year who wish to
become teachers. How? She bought two shares of the old
Reynolds Tobacco in 1933, which in turned spurred her to a
"lifelong fascination" with the stock market that she shared
with her late husband.
They were not big spenders but were big savers and big
givers instead. They gave away most of their money during
their lifetimes. At the retirement home where Houston now
resides, the staff says that she has never stopped teaching
others. What a monument to her life!
Nootka Chief Maquinna
Nootka Chief Maquinna, who welcomed Captain James
Cook and his men when they berthed at Vancouver Island in
1778, said:
"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house.
They told me it was a bank, and that the white men place
their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by
they got it back, with interest.
We are Indians, and we have no such bank; but when we
have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to
other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them,
with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank."
This article was adapted from Bill and Mary Staton's book, Worry-Free Family Finances, by McGraw- Hill.
Learn more about Bill Staton and his audio program The Seven Secrets to Becoming a Multimillionaire.
