Eleven years ago today, my best friend of 22 years passed away of melanoma after a noble fight. He was an incredible guy with a passion for living life fully. My last memory of him alive was spoon feeding him in his hospice hospital room. He couldn’t even lift his own hand and 32 tumors filled his brain. That’s the bad part.

There are good parts too:

- I had 22 years to know him, laugh with him, and get in all types of trouble with him.

- I was honored to serve as best man in his wedding and he in mine.

- We had many snow ski adventures together in Colorado.

- We taught each other lots of water skiing tricks and had many of sunset runs on glassy water  in a quiet cove (see my post playing catchup) .

-  I learned to see the good in bad situations. He was a constant reminder of that.

- I learned about being a good father, a good friend, and how faith heals (though sometimes not as we want).

- I’ve played a role in helping start a melanoma foundation in his memory. To date our foundation has raised almost $500,000. This money is used to help people who can’t afford treatment and to educate people on the danger of over exposure to the sun.

- His family and I have stayed in close contact and recognize both his death anniversary and birthday each year.

- I have had the great pleasure to share part of his story in my keynote speaking all across North America.

Maybe, just maybe, by telling his story, I have inspired someone to change something in their life or to connect in a deeper way with someone they love. I really hope so.

For the last several months, I received daily emails from HARO (Help a Reporter Out). It’s a cool service that allows journalist to let subscribers know about stories they are writing. This week I posted my own request for stories about how companies give back and what difference it makes. My post just listed about 24 hours ago but the responses I have received have been terrific. So many organizations and individuals are doing amazing things to give back. While most probably don’t give with the expectation that they will get something back, it seems most do. Here a just a few examples from many responses:

- At Pacific, we budget at least 2% of net profit to go toward charitable giving. Ever since we have done that, people all over our community have begun listing Pacific as a leader in the community when before we were just kind of behind the scenes.

-  Fox’s Pizza Den in Punxsutawney, PA has given back over $100,000 to the Fire Company & to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.  It has proven to be the most profitable & rewarding marketing we have done.

- I am a partner at a small translations business located in Nashville, TN. We offer all local non-profits a free English to Spanish translation so that they can communicate with their Hispanic clients.   legal services, animal shelters, and medical services. We feel good about knowing that Spanish speakers have access to important information in their language.  The non-profits are thrilled that someone gave them something for free. It has also helped our bottom line. We get the benefit of the “donation” (we send an invoice with the value of the translation with a balance due of zero), and several non-profits have turned into paying customers.

From small companies to large international organizations, I am convinced that if you want your organization to profit, try giving and if you want to be uplifted during these challenging times, take the advice below. 

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how givingincreases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go towww.TimRichardson.com

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new book that should be in my mail box when I return home. The book is entitled The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches us all.  Authors Azim & Harvey hope to raise over $500,000 to give to charity. it appears they are really walking their talk.

Speaking of giving, today I spoke for First Premier Bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This company believes in the Power of Giving. As a company, First Premier donated over 28,000 hours of volunteerism in their company last year. They understand what this blog is about - getting rich is not about having, it’s about giving.

Last week, my family and I stayed at the Rosen Shingle Creek. It’s an amazing hotel in the Orlando area that is at the very start of the waters that starts the Florida Everglades. The owner of the hotel, Harris Rosen, is an icon in Orlando and a real philanthropist. I had the opportunity to interview him while I was there.  One of the things he told me was a message I’d like to send to Donald Trump - stop being so #&@& selfish! The Donald COULD give some real money away - after all, as my new friend Harris said, “How much money do you need?”

What Rosen has accomplished is “Peanuts” in comparison to the BIG guys (his words). I am not sure that the citizens of Tangelo Park would agreed (he’s give some 300 students full ride college scholarships to students who stayed in school to graduate from high school). I am not sure the college students who attended “alternative” spring break guests at the Shingle Creeek would agree. I am not sure that the many charites in central Florida who have been recipients of his generostiy would agree. I am I quite sure The Donald who seems to enjoy flaunting his money more than sharing it would agree. Personally, I’d like to see more of Harris Rosen and much less of anyone named Trump. Do you agree?

Happy Early St. Patrick’s Day!

One of the cool things about trying to find the REAL Richest People in America, is to find stories of people people like Jacquie Berglund who has a passion for brewing and selling her own beer. AND she givies away the profits, every bit. Since September 2000, when she started Finnegan’s Amber, she’s given away nearly $60,000 to poverty programs across the state of Minnesota. Jacquie oversees a volunteer crew of seven who meet monthly to give direction to the company. Her lawyer, her creative team, and her PR company, all work pro bono. She says, “When people help me out, I pay them in beer. We are like the little beer engine that could with a lot of commitments from people wanting to making a difference”, says Jacquie. In her college days, Jacquie dreamed of starting her own non-profit company. She was always thinking of ideas for a business but at the same time she wanted to do something that would leave the world a better place. She lived in Paris for seven years, where she worked on development aid and development assistance and eventually did a masters thesis on development aid. Jacquie had a keen interest in helping others help themselves effectively. After moving back to MN, she became a director of marketing for a group of Irish pubs. In her job, she was giving lot of money away. But her concern was that the money was given to so many different causes that the contributions weren’t making an impact on any one cause. During that time, she volunteered at a homeless shelter and she found it ironic that she had to get up during the middle of the night to wake some of residents who had jobs. She wondered why so many were homeless. She become frustrated and wondered why a person who could work fulltime seemed incapable of taking care of their basic needs. One day while working, she had an epiphany. Jacquie said, “I came up with the idea for the beer company and decided that all profits would be given to a foundation. I knew if we picked one cause to support in the community, we would have far greater impact.” Within a year, Jacquie had a business plan and a product. Finnegan’s Amber was introduced in the pub she worked for at the time. It was an immediate hit. The owner of the pub told her that she was way more passionate about her beer than working for him. So being a considerate Minnesotan she didn’t quit without first asking her boss if she could leave to pursue her dream fulltime.

Her next step is to create a model that will move Finnegan’s beer into other markets like
Chicago, Boston and New York. Like her

Minnesota operation, all the money would go back to those communities to help those in poverty. One of her recipients of the Finnegan Foundation is an apartment community North of Minneapolis that caters to homeless youth. The foundation recently raised money to buy all new furniture. Jacquie said it was amazing to watch the homeless kids moving in with all brand new furniture. “It was a big confidence boost to them and their self respect”, Jacquie said. “That is the kind of stuff that is really powerful”. The Finnegan’s Foundation supporters are very involved with the non-profit activities they support. Each month, they visit a different nonprofit so everyone can see the difference they are making but also they can also witness firsthand the poverty issues in the community. She told me that a big part of what moves her is engaging the volunteers.” I get such joy of out people sharing their talents and time for a project that is bigger than me. It is so exciting to see them get fulfillment through giving back in a fun way. So many are enriched by this project and it includes a whole community.” Part of her motivation may have been her upbringing. She admitted that she grew up poor as the daughter of a waitress and a janitor. She also had the experience of moving up social classes as her father worked his was through school and ended up in management at a hospital. “You can ALWAYS move up,” Jacquie says. “If we create opportunities for people, help them to build their own capacity, provide tools for them and give them hope, I think anyone can do anything!” Is Jacquie rich? I think so. As she told me, “I absolutely love what I do. I have the best job in the world and am passionate about it. I own a beer company and am able to give all the profits back to the community.” According to Jacquie, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com