Dave Douglas is a new breed of entrepreneurs who wants to make a profit while making a difference. His business, Social Planet (A global philanthropic network with headquarters located in San Francisco, CA. Their mission is to improve the human condition and protect the natural environment - one person, one family, and one community at a time.)

I was impressed with Dave before I knew of Social Planet. Dave has discovered the kind of RICH life that this book is allb out about. I met Dave a few years ago after a speech I gave in San Francisco. We connected for a few minutes afterward and then shared a ride to the airport. We have stayed in touch. In one of our many phone conversations since then, we discussed the project I was working on to find the REAL Richest People in America. Dave also kindly offered to review my book Living Rich in the early stages. A few weeks after he read it, I received an email from Dave that defined his RICH experience:

“I want to share something with you that made me realize how RICH my father was even though he was a pipefitter working a blue-collar job in an oil refinery for 35 years. I’m not sharing this in hopes that you will put it in your book (you’re in Dave!), but more as an explanation of my personal “epiphany” of what it means to be RICH.

When I was 35 years old, my father passed away at the age of 71 on February 19th, 1995 after years of being ill. He lived with my mother in Tulsa, Oklahoma where my other three siblings lived.

With their blessing and excitement, I left home for a life of adventure when I was 18 and ended up living in California. I saw my family quite a bit, but in truth it was always a vacation - either they were visiting me in California or I was home for the holidays or some other event. It was great seeing everyone, but in truth I didn’t really know what went on in their day-to-day lives. I didn’t even know the friends that they had except for visiting their church when I would be back in Tulsa.

I kept a viewpoint of my father that I had had the last time I lived with him and saw his life up close and personal. I always respected him and was never ashamed of him. In fact, I wished I could be more like him. People always praised my father, but being a kid in high school I only could see us being “middle class” and not having the “big house” or “extravagant vacations”…my fondest memories now or my childhood are the very vacations that I thought were “second class” as a kid. We would spend TWO WEEKS camping at the lake fishing, swimming, boat rides, burgers, and campfires; God, how I miss that now.

I couldn’t believe how many people were there to pay their respects! The chapel in the funeral home and couldn’t hold everyone. People flowed out into the foyer and into the garden.

I was shocked to hear people that I didn’t know, people of serious wealth and influence in Tulsa, tell me how much they were going to miss “Pete”…(that was his nickname.) His legal name was Elza LeRoy Douglas. I can’t remember anyone calling him Elza except family members at our family reunions; and that was usually when they were giving him a hard time about something or other.

They would tell me about ways that he helped them at one time or another, they would tell me fishing stories, they would express how he touched their lives or supported them when they were down. I learned that my father was the president of the Tulsa Rockhound society. I learned how much he loved his small church and how devoted he was to its success. I found out that he still had friends from high school, even after 50 years. I met people that he worked with from 15 years earlier. There were so many people from so many walks of life and from so many levels of society that I literally had to take a moment and gather my emotions.

I realized that day that my father was one of the RICHEST people I have ever known and that he always taught me how to live my life…even in his death. I thought it would give you maybe a little inspiration to your writing to here that I’ve been trying to live RICH for about 13 years now and it took at least 5 years to get to the point of living RICH the way I wanted to. I basically retired from working for a living at 40 in 2000. For most of my working life, I pursued monetary riches. I was making nearly $500,000 per year, but it wasn’t until I saw what my father had accomplished through his life that I realized I was on the wrong track.

Dave is on track now. I know you’ll hear more about Dave and the great work he and a growing breed of social entrepreneurs are doing to change the world and make a living in the process.

I ran across the blog post below written by Generation Why speaker Eric Chester. Chester and his company have recently released a powerful new training program called the A - Game.  It an entire training program geared toward helping young people become prepared for the workplace. I have following Chester’s career and he is the go to guy for Gen Why. Enjoy this post and if you employ Gen Why employees, you might want to check out his training program.

In 1860, a lithographer by the name of Milton Bradley introduced The Checkered Game of Life to the nation. His game took players on a journey from infancy to happy old age, earning points for qualities like perseverance, honesty, ambition, and industry. Players lost points for idleness, intemperance, gambling, and a number of other vices.

Bradley wasn’t focused on making money with his invention; he had a much larger vision. He wanted to exemplify and promote the values his game espoused. And he had the right environment in which to do it: the late 1800’s were a golden age when it came to formulating America’s unparalleled, unabashed, uncompromising work ethic.

The old world view of labor as a distasteful practice best avoided by the upper classes had been replaced by the spanking new notion that a man could earn his place in the upper class through determination, discipline, and self-sacrifice. Parents, schools, and churches stressed the value of hard work and taught children how to live a virtuous life. Bradley’s game struck a resounding chord by perpetuating these principles.

It was not a coincidence that one hundred years later in 1960, the U.S. was one of the two international super-powers. A century of applied work ethic had seen the nation grow incredibly, and with this growth Milton Bradley became a highly profitable toy manufacturer. A hundred years after its original release, their signature product The Checkered Game of Life had been updated to reflect the prevailing mindset of the baby boom generation and was rebranded as The Game of Life.

The object of this revised edition was no longer to accrue points, but to accrue money. The ultimate destination of Happy Old Age was replaced with the wealthy neighborhood of Tycoon Estates. Losers didn’t gamble themselves to ruin or wind up impoverished as a result of their intemperance; they simply moved onto The Poor Farm.

The great religious and moral charges of the sixties—like the civil rights movement and the fight against communism— centered on the way individuals viewed others rather than the way they viewed themselves. Schools focused time on developing social responsibility leaving parents in charge of developing work ethic and virtues. However, the emergence of the dual-wage earning family meant less face-time for accomplishing this task at home.

The next version released in the 70’s and 80’s brought three significant ‘something-for-nothing’ changes to Life. A new “Share The Wealth” card enabled players to either steal 50% of an opponent’s cash windfall, or force them to pay half of their personal tax burden. Additionally, players were now ‘entitled’ to receive cash presents from other players for ‘life events’ like getting married or having children. “Lucky Day” spaces were also added to the game board offering players lottery-like cash prizes just for landing on them, with the option to keep the cash or risk it on a roll-of-the-dice gamble to multiply it. This was a far cry from the original version in which gambling was punished, rather than encouraged.

Revamped again in 1991, Life began to reward players for community service activities like recycling and helping the homeless, and there have been additional modifications since then. While civic-minded activities are certainly admirable, what is totally absent from the 1991 revision of The Game of Life is any reward for honesty, hard work, perseverance, and ambition. But when teaching and reinforcing these kinds of values and virtues are no longer a priority in our homes and our schools, why should they be tenets in today’s version of Life?

If you want to test this, go survey your friends and co-workers who have kids under the age of 25 and ask them what they want for their children.  Seriously, try this. You’ll find out that the goals of Baby-Boomer/Gen X parents are to make certain their kids are safe, happy, healthy, and have a high self-esteem; not necessarily in that order.  Work ethic won’t be mentioned.

It is into this environment that Generation Y has been born and nurtured.

And is why Eric Chester developed the A Game. It’s highly worth checking out.

Tonight my wife and I went to hear Fox News show host and best selling author  Dave Ramsey speak at the University of Tennessee. He gave five points to creating wealth which he admitted were simple. Yet most people don’t do these things. I thought it was good advice, particularly the last point. 

1. Act Your Wage (live on less than you make).

2. Get out of debt, stay out of debt.

3. Budget (before the month begins and stick to it).

4. Learn to save.

- create an emergency fund equal to 3-6 months of your living expenses

- pay cash (on average people spend 18% less when they use cash)

- invest to build wealth (he suggested mutual funds that include growth funds, aggressive growth, international, and cash)

5. Give. 

He said that giving was the most fun part of creating wealth. To be able to help someone else was what really made him rich. I couldn’t agree more.

Inspirational speaker Tim Richardson speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, healthcare, and financial services. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Twitter with Tim or get LinkedIn

I’ve noticed some silver lining in the current economic situation. More than one newspaper (like this San Francisco Chronicle article) or blog site I have read in the last week has reported that people who have lost their jobs are doing something about it - they are giving of their time to help others. How easy it would be for some to want to play the “poor me” card or have a daily pity party after losing their job. What a great thing it would if  those without work would find time to make a difference in their communities while waiting for work. Not a bad idea for those who have a job either.

Inspirational speaker Tim Richardson speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, healthcare, and financial services. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Twitter with Tim or get LinkedIn

Every so often I take a detour from my normal topic on this blog and write something just for fun. Today is one of those days. If you have ever given your wife or girlfriend a “gift” that keeps on giving (but not to her), you simply have to watch this short video clip of guys who get put in the doghouse. My wife recently had a birthday and while I didn’t make it into the dog house this year, there have been years I have been close. I think back to stupid things I have done or said over the years and I probably deserve a trip to the dog house though not as bad as the guys in this hilarious video. Watch it and let me know what you have done to deserve dog house entrance (or what a guy had “gifted” you with to deserve a trip).  Perhaps four minutes of your time watching this will help prevent you from the dreaded dog house trip. Happy shopping!

In this weeks USA Today, there was an insert titled Sharing in the USA. There were stories about Habitat for Humanity, movie stars Natalie Portmna and Lucy Lui, NFL player Warwick Dunn, and most intriguing 13 year olds Josh Hofing and Talia Leman. Josh is raising money to build a well in Ethiopia. Talia Leman started a non-profit called RandomKid.com. Incredible young people making a great difference in the world. 

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. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

Today I spoke with my friend Tom Tuohy. Tom is an amazing man who is making the world a better place. Twenty years ago, he had an idea to have a Christmas party in inner city Chicago for kids who otherwise won’t have Christmas. This year, his Dreams for Kids non-profit, is hosting Holiday for Hope events in over twenty countries. 

If you want to make a difference for young people and have your best holiday season ever, contact Tom and host a Holiday for Hope event in your state or country. 

Tomorrow is the 2nd annual Jeff Roth Cycling Foundation Crit race in my little town of Maryville, TN. Tour de France it may not be but it is great fun and local entertainment IF you happen to live in the “ville as I do. It’s a great example too of the kind of people I write about - people who take tragedy and turn into triumph. People like Kathy Roth who lost her husband Jeff in a sensless cycling accident almost two years ago. No doubt, Kathy could have sat around and done nothing, been paralyzed with grief, and cried herself to sleep. She did have her moments but it didn’t take her long to raise above and do something. She is actively working to help prevent the kind of sensless deaths when people are careless on the road and DON’T follow the 3-Foot Rule. She and the foundation she started are helping young people know about cycling safety and educating drivers about sharing the road.

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. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.

I recently received a hot news from my blogsultant. The content of the email was new news to me and I included portions below:

According to Tia, FriendFeed is the rage. It’s on ALL the industry sites. Tia asked the question: What is the difference in FriendFeed and other social sites, especially microblogging sites? I don’t have a clue of course and am hoping SOMEONE will chime in here and tell me how they use FriendFeed. Tia explained it as an RSS feed for YOU.  FriendFeed will track when you last blogged, updated your LinkedIn site, your Facebook page, your Twitter feed, Flikr, etc, which means anyone “following” you can see you anywhere you go online.

Blogsultant says it might be a bit intrusive and too “big brother”ish but she likes the potential it has as a branding tool. It recently launched so if you are curious and want to help securing your brand, FriendFeed might be your friend indeed.

If you find a FriendFeed a friend, just call out my name and I’ll coming running…winter, spring, summer or fall.