A note from the Author: Below, since we will finally publish on October 27th, is the final excerpt from my book, Empty Abundance; Finding Meaning through Mindful Giving. Appropriately for you, dear reader, it is the last two pages of the book. Thanks for hanging in with me; it’s been a shockingly long process from concept to actual printing. Note: I’ve yet to see the final sample book! The book itself can now be pre-ordered on our site and on www.emptyabundance.org. Next month, I will return to original blogging each month. As always, I’m grateful that you care to read because believe me, it is an honor and a privilege to be read.
I know in my soul, as Bogle does, that I have more than enough. And so I spend most of my days working to serve those who serve the poor, but I also enjoy every reasonable perquisite provided me by forty years of discipline and hard work.
The “Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey” included thirty thousand interviews completed in two waves by researchers at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University. Among other findings, the study states, “Those who gave contributions of time or money were 42 percent more likely to be happy than those who didn’t give.”
As I was starting my business, I read a small Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale book titled The Power of Ethical Management. The lesson I remember most from the book is to treat each associate as if they are a bank account, that is, to consider each interaction with that other person as either a deposit or a withdrawal.
So if you have ever thought to yourself – if I only had the resources, I would [do this great thing] to change the world for the better – now is your chance to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit and do as Gandhi said, “Be the change you hope to see in the world.”
“Life is difficult.” This was the first sentence of Scott Peck’s seminal book, “The Road Less Travelled.” Dr. Peck had not come up with a great revelation.
The malapropism used in the headline is courtesy of my brother, Terry, who uses hundreds of such phrases to keep himself entertained and throw his siblings and friends off their boring centers. Thanks, Terry.
My involvement in the foundation’s for-profit businesses is now “from a distance.” And I’m amazed by what that distance lends for perspective I can use to help my partners and the people they manage. The quality of my input seems better.
In pondering what lessons I’ve learned in 2013, it became clear to me –once again– that solutions to complex problems are frequently simple. Although I have discovered this many times in my life and career, it seems I rarely remember this fact until pain presides. And yet consider: many truths seem counter intuitive:
