Giving Something Back

Our success as Producers changing our society through our own behavior will be marginal unless that change in our behavior is also outwardly focused. It’s not just the things we avoid doing that are going to move Producers to the head of the line, but the positive things we accomplish. The main positive activity you pursue is of course Producing. But we need to look beyond your work or business into the community.

I have discussed how we Producers should work with our children to train them properly, not only to become good Producers, but to detect the mold of mediocrity, even through shiny wrapping. That is one outward focus, but there are others.

Perhaps ‘others’ is not the right word because it implies a small list of outwardly focused things we can do. Our opportunity is more universal. Think like this: You are a Producer, and every person you come into contact with is influenced by your character. When you smile at a clerk who is especially helpful, you are changing the world. When you lean over at day care and help some kid you’ve never met build a bridge out of blocks, you are changing the world. When you mentor a coworker toward better performance, you are changing the world.

Every person you speak with and everything you touch is an opportunity to improve the world as a Producer.

A Paraducer who wants to give something back might think, “What do I have to give?” You don’t have that problem. When you participate in Planet Earth, you are Producing and inspiring others to do the same. You know people who do not settle for anything less than the best. You watch them choose an entrée at a restaurant, or a wine, or pick a seat at the ball game, and they go for the best at every turn. These are Producers living life to the max, and affecting others around them.

You don’t have to ask, “What do I have to give?” because you have so much to give. All you have to do is jump in with both feet, get involved in a venture that you are passionate about, and the Producer in you will shine through, giving so much more than this average world expects. In the process, you will be leading others along, sometimes in ways unknown to you.

The world is average, and sometimes treats Producers badly because they ‘rock the boat.’ Don’t take it personally. Push ahead and keep Producing, get better, work harder, think smarter, smile bigger and laugh louder. The average of the world will always be there like the dandelions in our yard, but we don’t have to give them control of our lives!

So find a passion that leads you outside yourself and follow it, excellently.

The Sinister Transfer Payment

Our society is loaded with social liberals who cannot bear the sight of a homeless person on the street. It disturbs me as well, and it should disturb you. This is a great nation and should not have citizens living in cardboard boxes under bridges. Unfortunately, some choose to live that way, though most poor people do not prefer such and would gladly take the offer of a warm meal and bed.

I cannot fault the liberals for their compassion. However, what they do in response is not the solution, but only poisons the entire population, guaranteeing the perpetuation of the problem. Let me explain.

The world's religions champion helping the poor. We are called to help those less well-off, and we all agree that's a good thing. But there are a couple opposing ways to accomplish this.

The First Way involves people helping people, one on one, or perhaps more but not a crowd by any means. If I need a blanket, you give me a blanket. I say, "Thank you." If you need $50 to get your power turned back on for the rest of a cold January, I pay the bill and you say, "Thank you." The receiver is humbled and thankful, but so is the giver because he is thankful that he has excess to share, through hard work and perseverance no doubt.

As a real life example of this, I know of a situation where a woman was injured while doing some maintenance on her modest home in the city. She ended up in the hospital and rehab after having a leg partially amputated, turning her two-story home into a handicapped accessibility problem.

A couple of her friends started calling other friends, and they called others. Emails were sent to a larger community of Christians in the city. Within a week, dozens of people had volunteered time and materials to renovate her home, making it handicapped accessible. More than that, her house was virtually gutted and renovated from the studs out. People showed up every day of the week for several months to work on the bathroom, replace the kitchen cabinets, paint, or hang new doors. The house was aged and it needed quite a lot of work anyway.

After the woman was released from rehab, she saw the results of all this giving. The people who did the work were not waiting in the yard when she pulled up that day, looking for credit, but they had disappeared back into the community. There was no plaque displaying their names, and I don't think anyone even kept track of who did what. No, those people had their reward simply through the giving. And the woman was quite grateful and humbled for the free gifts she had been given.

The Second Way to help the needy is totally impersonal, but collects much more money and is more conformable to large, bureaucratic systems. It works like this. A government agent figuratively shows up at your door, you being a Producer, with a figurative gun, demanding his cut of your paycheck, off the top, which percentage he can set at will. If you don't pay, you are carted off to a literal, not figurative, jail cell to think it over. This system enrages Producers, the source of wealth, and breeds resentment against the system and the ultimate beneficiaries of the takings, the needy.

The money the government agents collect is put into a big pot. Most of the money is wasted on overhead and government offices where government agents discuss how to increase their takings. A small fraction of the money is doled out to the needy in a cold, impersonal manner, through the mailing of checks and food stamps. The needy take their checks and food stamps to the bank and grocery store, where they are met with looks of disgust and derision by even the clerks, who know they have no recourse but to comply with the government agents and support the needy who are buying ice cream and chips for the weekend. The needy in turn experience the death of their self esteem, feeling more worthless with each check that arrives from the government.

You see, the First Way was outlined in the Bible some 2,000 years ago. In it we find the maxim, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It's true, and not just a theological platitude. Actually, in reality, it is better to give than to receive, and any of you who have tutored a kid not your own, or served meals in a soup kitchen will agree. There's something about handing a hungry kid a plate of free food, personally, that is a bigger blessing than you could imagine.

The First Way to help the needy taps into the power of this giver's blessing, and the giver is not depleted in the giving, but is inexplicably, spiritually, filled and strengthened. The giver and needy person may even become friends, having found common ground not in the thing given, but in the humility both experience. And the roles may well be reversed one day, where the needy person becomes the source of what the original giver needs. The First Way builds relationships, and builds up the giver as well as the needy.

The Second Way to help the needy separates the giver from the needy person using a government agent with a gun, and the resulting resentment, hatred, disgust, shame and guilt work to prevent and destroy relationships. Further, the income that is robbed of the Producer prompts him to avoid any further voluntary giving, even the most beneficial one on one giving. This creates and deepens the rich/poor divide that the liberals whine about ceaselessly, thinking that their government programs should be the cure.

The liberal, who is a proponent of the Second Way, sees the transfer of wealth as a good thing and pats himself on the back for conceiving it, while not suspecting for a moment the destruction he has wrought. His guilt is assuaged, and the homeless he sees on the highways are reduced to statistics. And he even collects like-thinking friends who reinforce this delusion, all the while unaware they are cheating themselves out of the blessing of helping someone, one on one.

And please note that before the advent of the IRS, other entities filled the role of the evil government agent above, sometimes even the church. This has not always been a government problem.

Producers understand the value of hard work and the wealth it produces. They also understand that not everyone has equal opportunity, and they are willing to help others get ahead. But they are resentful and disgusted with the government system of transfer payments, which most often amounts to a vote buying program. Before our society can disassemble the disastrous welfare infrastructure, we must see Producers step to the front and lead in helping the needy, while social liberals marvel (over their wine and cheese) that someone can actually produce results.

Are you one of the Producers who will dare to test the maxim, "It is more blessed to give than to receive?"

We Producers must go into the projects, into the schools, into the poor neighborhoods, and give, building relationships in the process. It will take some time, because the government has conditioned all poor people to feel guilt and shame, not humility, when they receive. They have truly made it "more cursed to receive," and their reaction to your charity will be sour. Will you work anyway to build relationships that cannot be managed by some unthinking government agent with a gun in one hand and a check in the other? Will you work to empty out the projects, and make the soup kitchens a thing of the past?