Around the world,  TDM,  Thoughts

[Thoughts] #8: The Power of Giving – le Pouvoir du Don (The Power of Giving)

This post comes from an elderly Vietnamese entrepreneur, who was trained by the three best entrepreneurial “schools” in the world: American, Japanese and Israeli. He regularly shares his thoughts and entrepreneurial lessons on his Facebook page. His reflection this morning touched me a lot because he was able to put into words the information I received and believe in, without knowing how to express it clearly.

So I propose you here the translation in French, so that you can also access its information. This is an important message to remember and understand. Since I am not a translator by training, there are certain passages where I will paraphrase the idea instead of translating it like a novel.

Note: This Vietnamese entrepreneur opened a club for young entrepreneurs a few yearsago. There they learned how to create successful businesses but also how to lose. As soon as they reach their 1st billion Vietnam Dongs (about 37500€), the gentleman advises them to give everything to charity and start all over again. In this way, these young entrepreneurs not only make a precious gift to society and to people in difficulty, but they also learn that money isn’t lost, if they could earn their first billion, they will be able to earn ten, twenty billions later without any problem.


How do the rich get rich? No one knows because they don’t share their secrets.
The poor (editor’s note: the poor are us, who aren’t multi-billionaires), seeing that the rich are too rich, while they remain poor, find a lot of explanations.

Maybe they are rich through inheritance? Maybe they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth?
Maybe a member of their family is a minister, and the money comes from corruption?
If no family member is a minister, they will conclude: They must be illegal.

Because in the minds of the poor, there is no notion that a person can become rich by himself.

If the rich man is brilliant, it’s necessarily thanks to his excellent teachers, his reputable school, his rich family, his parents’ genes… they don’t recognize that a person can be talented because of his capacity for self-learning. Because they don’t have this ability, they don’t accept the idea that someone can be self-taught and become brilliant. On the contrary, they are absolutely looking for an external reason why THEY are neither brilliant nor rich.

All over the world, many billionaires leave only a tiny part of their fortune to their children, the rest is given to foundations and charities. The poor will see this as tax evasion, but in reality, there are very specific laws framing the activities and expenses of such associations.

Asian family culture is the opposite. In a middle-class family with two children, the parents work day and night to provide each child with a home. Many Vietnamese entrepreneurs are stingy with others but too generous with themselves. For themselves or their children, they spend lavishly, buy luxury cars, burn money for fun, sink into lust to satisfy their physical bodies… but with their employees or partners, they count every penny.

Is giving money without counting to your children a proof of love?

Westerners say that this isn’t love. The descendants of Hòa Thân, the prince Bạc Liêu (editor’s note: the extremely rich Vietnamese) are now penniless. Even if their ancestors once declared that the fortune was enough for 5 generations. Why did the 3rd generation become motorcycle-taxis? (editor’s note: motorcycle-taxis is considered a job that anyone can do, all you need is a scooter – it’s a bit like being a cashier in France). The descendants of the ancient kings of the world also sold their treasures to museums as they went along.

During a discussion, I was sitting next to two Chinese comrades. They told me that in China, the notion of “no one is rich over 3 generations” still exists. That is to say that even if a family is very rich, after 3 generations, they will not be rich anymore. However, in the West, they remain rich for dozens of generations. Precisely in the group, there is an Italian, 5th generation of a large tomato products company. So what is the difference between the West and the East?

I went to the library to get the answer and then I asked several people the question. Finally, part of the answer can be found in an old Chinese book from the 15th century, they have compiled statistics on thousands of years of Chinese and Asian history. The book talks about the power of giving ( editor’s note: this isn’t the name of the Chinese book, I tried to find it without success, the author has access to it because he speaks fluent Chinese).

When a person arrives in the world, his success is made up ofONE PART OF TALENT, 2 PARTS OF VERTU and 7 PARTS OF FORTUNE.

This FORTUNE (editor’s note: which can also be translated by “beneficial influence of the ascendants; blessing; favor”) gathers the luck, the merit, the blessing left by his ancestors. When it is said that a person comes into the world with a lot of FORTUNE, he can be intelligent, brilliant, lucky, or endowed with an extraordinary physique… This FORTUNE will decide 70% of his success. The problem is that we don’t know how much our FORTUNE is, so in order to succeed, we must also increase our share of VERTU (ed. note: kindness, morals) to reach the 20% allowed and work on our skills, to reach the 10% share of TALENT.

For example, Mr Trương in Hangzhou (editor’s note: a very rich merchant in China in the 6th century). He is a merchant, so we will measure his success through the money he earns. His FORTUNE is, from his birth, 100 000 gold ingots (editor’s note: we talk about ingots because it was the currency used in ancient China, silver ingots, gold ingots of all sizes), which corresponds to the peak of his company’s success. In other words, if he earns only 50,000 ingots, his business will still be growing, and his success curve will continue to increase. But when he already reaches 100,000 ingots but continues to accumulate, accumulate, his career will start to decline like a parable: bad luck, illnesses, all sorts of unpleasant things will happen until the FORTUNE reaches 0, and it is his 3rd generation that will suffer.

The Westerners, they understood it very early, they found a solution. This is the secret of the rich Westerners. They only pay for their children until the age of 18. Then it’s the children’s turn to decide. If they want to continue their higher education, they only have to borrow money, from the family or the state. Once they graduate, they will work hard to pay off their debts, just like everyone else. It is only after several years that they will join the family business and climb the ladder like other employees. That’s why they like money, if they buy luxury cars, they will do it with their own money, instead of buying it with their parents’ money.

Western billionaires also don’t know how high the maximum limit of their FORTUNE is. So they give, every month the money is given to this or that association, this or that foundation, for different reasons, but the idea behind it is to set an example for society, to find joy in giving, to assume the responsibility of a true businessman.

For example, if the fortune reaches 99,000 ingots, they will give 90,000 and they will be left with 9,000. Their FORTUNE continues to give them 91,000 ingots. Their business continues to grow. Moreover, the power of giving isn’t yet talked about. The FORTUNE is growing, the next FORTUNE’s peak becomes 150,000 ingots and not 100,000 ingots.

Many people (mostly those who don’t make a lot of money, such as academics), explain that they do it to avoid taxes, but the reality is that when a person already has a billion dollars, their way of thinking is very different, they don’t have to count every penny for taxes as we used to think. When they reach a billion, or 10 billion, or 20 billion, billionaires don’t care about the balance in their account.

They give continuously and not just once, they’re not going to decide to give 5 million, then regret it, and give 2 million instead. If you still regret when you see the money go, you won’t be able to do great business because you lack generosity and gratitude.

Give, because the Universe notes everything. A positive thought for someone else is a positive message to the Universe. A small gift for someone else is a small note added by the Universe on our generosity, and the Universe will arrange to give us something else.

The law of the Universe is to take where there is too much, to give where there isn’t enough, and the person who accomplishes this mission will have all the favors of the Universe.

[ENDS]


My comments: So, concretely, how do we do it?

First, stop being mother hens, father hens. Stop giving money to your *adult* children. The more you give to your children, the more they lose their share of FORTUNE and you aren’t doing them any favours. Lend money eventually (with interest), but do not give it to the children.

there are also many ways to give, here our Vietnamese entrepreneur talks about charitable donations because he is talking about entrepreneurs. But you can make regular donations in many ways. It can be an automatic monthly transfer of 5€-10€-50€ to your favorite association, it can be the gift of time (serving meals at the Restos du Coeur, or making announcements for cats to adopt), it can be the gift of knowledge (teaching something for free, creating a website to make your knowledge available), it can be the gift of blood, as it can be just sharing to inform, and to spread love and positive energy…

This Christmas, instead of making gifts that everyone ends up throwing away or reselling, give a gift certificate. That way, the person will be able to choose the association of their choice, to be interested in it

When we travel, we take the time to take pictures of the food and restaurants, and then post a positive review on Google Maps or Tripadvisor to bring customers to their homes. If we have eaten particularly well, enjoyed the hotel, we talk about it on our blog. This blog is also a form of donation, and gratitude, to thank the Universe for all the luck it has given us.

We continue to keep our business in France and pay taxes in France, to reimburse the state for the costs of our higher education, and to allow other students to benefit again and again from the cheap information in France, the infrastructure, the quality and cheap medical care.

Maybe you think you shouldn’t shout from the rooftops when you make donations or do positive things. On the contrary, in the midst of raging, negative posts, a positive post is like a breath of fresh air. Talking about our positive actions means setting an example and encouraging others to do the same. When the intention is pure (giving to give, without expectations), you don’t have to fear what others might think of your generosity

Here is the original text in Vietnamese :

https://www.facebook.com/TonyBuoiSang/posts/3803347506384747?__cft__[0]=AZURHEcSNUdrcrIIdRYZwZdsjwHyZ3QorQBBkVJMhxiN18U67S_voqXj1eqr2vA61JNgHMn-A4ZMBR_tzwYPGsa1nHpU_eJhb3-N9ZjkSTMz3TwC4CBH2FFD3LIm4K8C9v0SuY-v4FVIqDMm9SR3b7Ril05sEIpckkpj7vw82KmDxn6nDgqIIpe4bX5MzXadhAZNYqoZkQGshdg83hVNjViZ&.__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

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