In December 2008 Credit Default Swaps (CDS) were all the rage. Everywhere you looked in finance there was talk about this company on the verge of collapse or that institution about to go under. Bankers and hedge funds were salivating at talk of double digit spreads and failure rates. People in the finance game were baying for blood and eyeing their next bonus.

While all this commotion was taking place I woke up in a hospital bed not knowing whether I could move.

Like most Australian's I spent that sunny December day at the beach. Unlike most Australian's I was with a small group of 10 crazy Alpha Male's freestyle climbing a rope hanging atop a 40 foot cliff face with nothing for support but brute strength and fear of failure. Known as The Bondi Rope there is zero margin for error when using only arms and upper body strength without legs or harness for support.

As I was pulling my entire body weight up the rope I suddenly heard this loud "pop" noise. The same sound of champagne corks popping when financiers were celebrating the incoming CDS payouts following the collapse of Lehman's only a month earlier.

In that moment my left humerus (bone between shoulder and elbow) literally snapped under the force of my body weight leaving me hanging with just one arm on the rope with nothing but jagged rocks and the 40 foot cliff free-fall below.

Given the horrific nature of my injury and little else but an iron determination to not fall from the rope by sheer miracle I got down safely. It was an out of body experience and I don't know how. Remarkably my climbing buddies were horrified, amazed and speechless all at the same time. Thankfully one of them called an ambulance where the x-ray showed my arm virtually in two pieces.

I soon woke up to find my arm bandaged and stabilized after surgeons had inserted an 8-inch titanium plate and 14 screws and apparently Humpty Dumpty was back together again. My surgeon introduced a colleague who was visiting Australia on a surgical rotation and training. He spoke with a delightful American accent and before I could garner the strength to introduce myself he said 'Dude, that injury is the craziest thing I've ever seen! I just emailed my guys in Iraq to tell them how freaking hard core you are." He then introduced himself as a Major in the US Army. "Respect," he said. Speechless was my reply.

The experience changed my life and I was given a second chance after the dress rehearsal came to an abrupt end. It was showtime as the lights were now on, camera's ready, action!

During rehabilitation I was simultaneously dealing with depression and financial market meltdown with my health and livelihood in peril. No longer would I value myself on the money I was making or allow my mood to be correlated with that day's market volatility. It was time to heal both body and soul. In so doing I was determined to find my reason for being.

Less than a month after surgery with an immobile upper body I walked into the gym and got on a treadmill. I was sick of being a victim and started walking. After about five minutes I nearly collapsed but I went back the next day and walked a little further. Day after I did the same and soon I began jogging and then running on this evil treadmill. Like the great Forrest Gump I just kept going.

Fast forward five years and I have successfully returned from the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal and I'm about to run my fifth Marathon next month in New York. In the process I've raised millions of dollars for causes around the world including cancer, environment and diabetes after establishing Give While You Live as a philanthropic education platform that soon became a non-profit fundraising vehicle.

Give While You Live represents a set of values and how I live my life taking nothing for granted and living each moment trying to optimize my finite time on this planet. This journey has taught me some valuable lessons about life and people. All humans enter and exit this world exactly the same way as naked vulnerable beings regardless of gender, ethnicity, culture, geography or wealth. Our mission is to empower others to be the best person they can be. Therefore we should remember that wealth is merely an external object like everything else and like inner peace, real power comes from within.

Recently I had the privilege to meet Aang San Suu Kyi who repeated the Buddhist maxim that "nothing in life is permanent" and indeed wealth is no different. Use it or lose it. Wealth provides the opportunity to do what others can't, because you can see what others don't. No longer should the wealth management industry purely be focused on the "what" but rather the "how" and "why" is what matters.

In my speech at the United Nations in July when I addressed the Nexus Global Summit I said "profit and philanthropy are not mutually exclusive they are complementary" reminding those present that zero sum game is over because the way we make money matters and the reason is to have impact. Finance needs to change from within and these are the values we need to start talking about as bright eyed kids finish Business School and set sails for Wall Street.

Along this path I have therefore realized, defined and embraced my reason for being.

My mission is to positively influence the allocation of capital.

The time is now to change the world.

Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest says he got his kids’ blessing before signing up to give away half his fortune.

What strikes you about Andrew Forrest’s letter announcing his decision to give away half his fortune is the call to arms.

Forrest’s support for the Giving Pledge movement, started by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates – where billionaires declare they will give away at least half their fortunes – isn’t just about making a personal statement. The mining executive wants to bring other wealthy entrepreneurs along with him.

“We . . . hope, with our friends in Australia, that our example will give others in fortunate circumstances pause,” Forrest writes. “While giving responsibly is challenging to do well, you will find it even more satisfying than the exhilaration you experienced when creating your enterprises,” he writes.

While Forrest points out that there “must be no sense of obligation, as it’s one’s right to give or not”, there is an almost evangelical note to his letter.

“It was your logic, intuition, focus, foresight, good fortune, relentless determination and work capacity that produced the wealth you now ponder the future of. Yet it is also these same powerful talents that cause you to ask yourself, could I become a major philanthropist and responsibly use my wealth to improve communities and the lives of those less fortunate, potentially touching millions of people?”

Forrest is the first Australian and one of a handful of billionaires outside the United States to join the Giving Pledge ranks. Giving Pledge members include 105 billionaires such as Buffett (fortune of $46 billion) and Gates ($66 billion), New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ($22 billion), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($10 billion) and Virgin founder Richard Branson ($4.2 billion).

“Stuff is not what brings happiness,” Branson writes in his letter. “Family, friends, good health and the satisfaction that comes from making a positive difference are what really matters.”

The pledges set out the way the billionaires want their money spent and why – the differences can be stark.

For example, Forrest’s focus is on long-term measures, such as indigenous charities and education.

“We resist the temptation and pressure to alleviate suffering through short-term solutions, such as cash handouts, as they ultimately weaken people,” he writes.

We resist the temptation and pressure to alleviate suffering through short-term solutions, such as cash handouts, as they ultimately weaken people. 

Buffett takes a different view. “Nothing will go to endowments; I want the money spent on current needs.”

But there are common threads. Both Buffett and Forrest make mention of the difficulties of large-scale philanthropy.

Buffett admits his biggest problem is a lack of time and Forrest agrees – his family will help direct the giving.

Branson, Forrest and Buffett all talk about the process of gaining their childrens’ blessing for their inheritance to be given away.

“Our kids looked at it very squarely and looked at the things which they enjoy in life. Having the opportunity to make their own way is immensely satisfying and strengthening,” Forrest told The Australian Financial Review. “With laughter we read on a physio’s wall a caption: ‘Those with the most toys when they die, still die’.”

http://www.fundraisingresearch.com.au/oz__top_100_13.html

Benevolent billionaires - why do they do it?

Amanda Bryan

Self-interest is at the heart of many a philanthropist's motivation, according to Aussie entrepreneur Dick Smith. Illustration: Matt Davidson


They have been hailed as the billion-dollar givers by Forbes in a new list of the world's most benevolent billionaires, but what inspires super-rich people to give most of their money away? Is it guilt, glory or simply the joy of giving?

Topping the 23-strong list is Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who according to Forbes has so far given nearly half of his $US66 billion ($A63.5 billion) fortune away. His outlook on life seems to be a motivating factor.

“We are impatient optimists by nature: we see the glass as 'half full' and are motivated to confront problems that others consider impossible to solve,” his foundation website states.

Others, including US magnate Warren Buffett, who has donated $17 billion to date, and Rams Home Loans founder John Kinghorn, who has donated $300 million, have said they don't want to leave their children disablingly rich.

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Given the flak Australia's jet set often cop for being less charitable than their overseas counterparts, the issue of motivation is key.

Australian millionaire entrepreneur and noted philanthropist Dick Smith says that for him it's the feel-good factor.

“I give out of self-interest. It makes me feel good,” he says. “My giving is totally selfish, and I've never claimed anything else. I think it generates karma, and if you feel OK within yourself, that allows you to be successful.”

He's not alone in enjoying the buzz of benevolence. For the past year or so a mysterious British millionaire has been shelling out £1000 ($A1500) a day to random people on the street to spend on something “good” and documenting the results at the website we-are-lucky.com.

Even toddlers think giving is pleasurable, according to a recent study published in the online journal PLoS One. It found children under two were happier when giving treats to others than they were receiving treats themselves.

Scientists have found time and again that altruism triggers the pleasure centres of the brain, but the mechanisms are mysterious and multifaceted, according to Stanford University's Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research.

DNA is thought to play a part. Earlier this year, US researchers linked generous and civic-minded personality traits to receptor genes for the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin in a study published in Psychological Science.

However, Dr Anthony Grant, director of the Coaching Psychology Unit at the University of Sydney, says stage of life is also an important factor.

Most business high-flyers work very hard to make lots of money in the initial stages of their career and at that time accumulating personal wealth is an important goal in itself, says Grant, who has coached a number of Australia's corporate leaders.

He says that once people reach a household income of about $150,000, however, the happiness that money alone can bring starts to level off.

“At that point, it's easy to get deluded by traps like having the latest iPad mini or Mercedes," he says. "But money is only a pathway goal, so when you focus on only that you neglect higher order values that give meaning to those goals.”

If wealthy people continue down that road, says Grant, they can get disenchanted and disaffected, and start to wonder why they endured all the turmoil and difficulty along the way.

Then they discover that giving away money offers new meaning and purpose to their struggle.

“That's why rich people often give away lots of money at the end of their career,” he says.

This doesn't apply only to the wealthy. One US man took this to extremes and has been living without money for more than a decade. In 2000, Daniel Suelo, aged 39, dumped his last $30 in a phone booth. He now lives currency-free in the Utah wilderness.

According to Suelo's blog, his mission is to stay free from the illusion of money. “Wild nature, outside commercial civilisation, runs on gift economy: freely give, freely receive,” he writes.

Dick Smith feels that many of Australia's richest people remain stuck in the illusion. He says that these days most thumb their nose at philanthropy.

He says that as the gap between rich and poor widens, those at the wealthiest end of that spectrum are obliged to give back – and they should do so publicly.

“If you are fulfilling an obligation, it shouldn't be a secret,” he says.

In countries such as the US, Smith says, high-net-worth people who don't give back become social pariahs. Rich Australians, on the other hand, seem to get away with it.

“I know wealthy people worth hundreds of millions who proudly say they give nothing to charity,” he says. “Here it's all about showing off - running a bigger company, having a bigger boat or owning a bigger waterfront."

A few years ago, Queensland University of Technology released a report that found a “sizeable proportion” of wealthy Australians gave little, if anything, to charitable causes.

It also found that Australia's affluent, on average, gave at a lower level than their counterparts in comparably affluent countries such as Britain, Canada and the US.

The latest numbers seem to support this. There were no Australians, for instance, on Forbes' billion-dollar givers list. Australia's mega-rich, it seems, are more likely to be found on the more modest million-dollar givers list.

FR&C, an Australian firm specialising in prospect and donor research and consulting, lists 200 individuals and families who have publicly disclosed Australian donations of more than $1 million.

According to the FR&C list, fewer than 10 Australians have given away more than $100 million.

A US citizen – duty-free shopping billionaire Chuck Feeney – tops this list. He has donated $500 million in Australia through his private foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies.




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/culture/benevolent-billionaires--why-do-they-do-it-20121122-29sjs.html#ixzz2DMsjHRd2