An Invaluable Infection

The following was originally posted on the Hard Rock Philanthropy page at www.rethos.com.

My New Year’s resolution is to have a better sense of well-being in 2008. Does that sound self-serving and hedonistic? Good! I invite you to adopt the same resolution. But the means by which I suggest we reach our goal may surprise you.

It won’t be by winning the lottery. Money can’t promise happiness. A 1978 study found that there was no significant difference in levels of reported happiness between lottery winners and those who had not won. The same study found that accident victims who had become quadriplegic or paraplegic did not experience any significant difference in their happiness quotient after their tragedy.

Granted, winning the lottery would provide an immediate boost in my state of financial well-being. Becoming a quadriplegic would undoubtedly send me into a deep depression. But neither reaction is likely to last. “We are bad at ‘affective forecasting,’ that is, predicting how we’ll feel in the future. We grossly overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions. Within a year, lottery winners and paraplegics have both (on average) returned most of the way to their baseline levels of happiness.” (The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt, pg 85.)

Achieving a greater sense of well-being in 2008 won’t come from buying a new car or moving into a bigger house or acquiring the latest in consumer electronics. I think we have all learned that the immediate gratification that comes from material goods is short-lived at best. It’s only a matter of weeks (days? hours? nanoseconds?) before the next version of the iPhone hits the market, making my three-month-old Motorola flip phone appear shabby and outdated.

Another way to look at your state of well-being is to consider the highest of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, self-actualization. Once the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are met, your soul yearns for meaning and purpose. The problem is that our Western Society economy revolves around satisfying material wants. It is not so easy to satisfy meaning want. “Freud’s contention that the most the typical person could aspire to was ‘ordinary unhappiness’ may have been snide, but recognizes a truth. Look for unhappiness and you will surely find it, as unhappiness is a condition anyone can enter. Look for meaning, and you may be tested.” (The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook, page 211.)

So if achieving our New Year’s Resolution doesn’t come from a major purchase or a positive change in finances or physical health, what is the trick? Pretty much the opposite. A greater sense of well-being requires sacrifice. It requires giving of ourselves and our resources to help others in need.

If you have read other Hard Rock Philanthropy posts you know that this is not a recent revelation. As a slightly-above-average-mid-to-upper-middle-class philanthropist I have long subscribed to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s philosophy: “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself… Serve and thou shall be served.” For nearly 20 years my wife and I have designated a percentage of our annual income to charity, and I readily accept the benefits of giving to others. What is new for ME, and what I resolve to do in 2008, is to INFECT OTHERS WITH THE PHILANTHROPY VIRUS.

In September the New York Times interviewed billionaire Chuck Feeney, founder of Atlantic Philanthropies. Since 1982 he has given away more than $4 billion. In 2006 alone his foundation gave away $458 million in grants around the world, more than any United States charity except two, the Ford and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. But unlike the Fords and the Gateses and the Buffets and the Winfreys, Mr. Feeney generally prefers to keep a low profile. Asked why he chose to reveal himself through the Times interview, he looked away for a moment.

“A lot of wealthy people, they don’t realize they have the alternatives of spending the money for good,” he said. “If they knew it gives so much satisfaction, I wouldn’t have to persuade them. The press says someone’s ‘one of the wealthiest persons in the world,’ but he hasn’t figured out how many grilled-cheese-and-tomato sandwiches that comes to. How many can you eat?” (Out of Sight, Till Now, and Giving Away Billions, by Jim Dwyer, New York Times, September 26, 2007.)

How many indeed? How many songs do you really need to download to your iPod? For crying out loud, how many do you already have that you never listen to? Do you really need the latest in wireless technology? (Note to reader: I am also pointing the finger at myself!) I am no billionaire. My salary hasn’t yet reached six figures. But simply by my status as a citizen of the USA I am “one of the wealthiest persons in the world.” I know from experience that what Mr. Feeney declares is true. It feels good to give to others. There is great satisfaction to be gained by making a difference in someone’s life. “Psychologists would argue that, as a giver, I am by definition a provider of help, as opposed to a victim. When I am thus empowered, my life improves in all sorts of ways.” (Who Really Cares, Arthur C. Brooks, page 142.)

For me it is no longer enough to give. For the sake of my own personal sense of well-being, I must encourage others to give. I am compelled to spread the news that philanthropy is for everyone. We in Western Society have so much in the way of material goods, yet so many of us lack meaning and purpose in our lives. Purpose can be found in philanthropy.

I have a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG, see Good To Great by Jim Collins). Within my lifetime I want to see philanthropy double in the United States, and as a result, I believe extreme poverty throughout the world can be cut in half.

I was born in 1958. Do the math. I don’t have a lot of time left. Even if I live to be 100 I can’t reach this BHAG by myself. I need a platform for change, and I invite you, dear reader, to join this crusade. Make it your New Year’s resolution to help others, to give more, and to spread this invaluable infection as far and wide as you possibly can.

How wonderful it is that nobody needs to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
Anne Frank

Copyright © 2008 Richard M. Potter. All Rights Reserved.