Friday, March 6, 2009

Investment in Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

''No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.''


Margaret Thatcher, Former British prime minister



1: It's all about empowerment: Riding on horseback in South America


2: Charity does not take so much


Why do we usually wait for the undefined ‘someday’ when we think about helping others in a big way, like charitable foundations and sharing institutions? Well, we usually think it costs a lot, for one, and that to make an impact in peoples lives, we need to do something really big. We also think that it takes a Warren Buffett, a Branson or a Rockefeller to do things like that and that we will have to wait for that day when we’re Rockefellers and Buffetts to be able to do so.

This is actually the inspiration and probably the most important key principle of The Hidden Investment. It’s about giving. It’s sharing with others, our wealth, and doing it, as in conventional investments, as early as possible.

1) It’s Not about the Money
It’s all about empowerment. Great things start from small beginnings. Maybe all they need a little boost, like a little injection of Jet fuel to get a struggling 4WD to surmount an uphill climb. Likewise, it only needs a few great books to change an entire life and a little inspiration to transform a point of view from despair, resignation and apathy into idealism, optimism and resolve.

2) It Does Not Take that Much
If it’s about the empowerment, then it’s doesn’t take a lot of money to help individuals and / or group of people. Education and skills training, for example, spells a lot of difference in developing countries on whether or not a certain family has a potential to get past the poverty line .


3) It’s Best to Start Early
The complexity of needs is directly proportional to our age. This indeed may also be true to the complexity of the things that make us happy, but that’s another matter. Now, while the basic needs are met, the chances of enabling someone meet his own in the future will greatly increase. Consider the needs of elementary pupils to college students. We can then start with the young ones, who do not need that much, but still can’t afford to help themselves or to get help from their family.


The First Steps We Need to Take:

1) Choosing our beneficiary – this is about who we will share our blessings with. This is critical. Some of us can very well see great potential in other people, and that all they need is a little spark for their rockets to soar.

2) Setting our guidelines – It helps of course to at least in ourselves or among our friends to formalize a little bit and set procedures, from choosing, qualifications, and conditions for our beneficiaries. Well, it really depends on the help we are extending.

3) Individual or Pooled Funds – Getting a support group for this may be even better, our friends may have been thinking of the same thing. We may opt to invite others, totally strangers who are committed or ardent in the same cause.

4) Terms of Release – There could be a one-time help such as a construction of a school building, clinic facilities and multi-purpose community areas. Others may include regular endowments such as books for a library and maybe personal financial help; say a certain amount for every term.

5) Talk about Inspiration – Explicitly sharing the goal or objectives of our endeavor to our beneficiaries, enlightens them. One of these persons that we are able to help could be the next extension of ourselves in this undertaking. Or maybe not, however, certainly, the seeds of The Hidden Investment in helping others have been sowed.

The answers to these qualifications variably depend on our objectives, and our areas of concern, or aspects of life that we are deeply passionate about.

See, when we empower people, we at the very least give them fuel to reach their dreams. We at the very least ignite the fire of hope in their lives. We share with them the commitment to make life better at the very least for themselves, their families, and who knows, maybe for a lot of others as well.

The rewards are pretty much apparent; just imagine how great the feeling of empowering lives. In our little ways, we can alter the cycle of poverty into a culture of people helping people help themselves
.


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Again, The Five Basic Hidden Investments (Our Key Categories):

Your Greatest Asset: Yourself.

Business Partners: Building Relationships

There’s Gold in the Hours

Sharing: Good Measure and Running Over

Making it Last: Wealth Management


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