The following was my essay response to a scholarship question. I don’t consider it to be particularly well written, but I believe the concepts to be true.
There is no positive effect that doesn’t come as a result of obedience to some principle or law. Honest wealth comes in the same way, by keeping those principles that create it. The most transcendent principle of wealth is that of service. By providing the service that touches lives some need is met. Those who seek this service prove their appreciation and, more importantly, the earnestness of their desire by meeting a fairly asked price. Such is the right way of wealth.
One example might be the business of real-estate. What is the service provided? It is the simplest and best-quality access to land or home, one of the fundamental desires of the human race. The real-estate agent helps the client perform a service they could not do for themselves. He helps them navigate the confusion and legalities of acquiring property to fulfill their dreams.
The second key principle to the creation of wealth is thought. Without thought, the divine and forceful functioning of the mind, no amount of raw work or expended strength will succeed. The leveraging power of the mind is often more important than any degree of raw strength; it is thought that allows the real-estate agent to recognize and then act to meet the needs of the client he serves. As Ford, Microsoft, and Google know, sometimes it only takes one good idea to propel yourself to success. These producers also know that if that stream of clear, creative thought dries up, the consequence can be doom.
Because service is at the root of all true productivity and hence wealth, the duty to give back is close at hand. If the wealth is honestly created – not gained by stealth, deception, or coercion – it must be created by service and thought. The duty of the wealthy to the world around them is to further express those qualities for the benefit of the world. That same discernment of needs that made a successful business can be turned to discerning what help will be of most benefit to the needy, and what the appropriate price of that help would be.
I recently had an experience that demonstrated this. In connection with a computer repair business I created with him, my dad discovered the opportunity to receive business counseling from a former owner of a successful business. The sessions were funded by the US Government. Regardless of the nature of the wealth of the government, this session exemplified a powerful use of wealth for service. The businessman that my dad spoke to had successfully run a chain of tire stores in Utah, and was not in want of money. Although he was of retirement age, he was paid by the government to provide counseling to up-start small business owners, and the advice he provided was precious to us. The government was able to invest resources in an intelligent way to provide a very valuable service, as did the man to whom my father spoke. This man was giving of his time and, more particularly, of his expertise in what was at least partially a volunteer effort; the capital from selling his business ensured that he little needed the money. This is an embodiment of the combination of thought and service that the fortunate can provide to enrich the world. If, on the other hand, we had simply been given a portion of the money that made that counseling session possible, it surely would have done little good for unguided-us.
Beggars do very little good in the world. This appears to be a sad fact of being impoverished. In order to be free to contribute to society, one needs to have sufficient freedom from debt and financial obligations to be unrestrained in compassion, and to have time to share. But merely having these conveniences does not make that opportunity into valuable service. Looking a little deeper it is clear that it isn’t the absence of wealth that renders the potential server impotent; it is the absence of the qualities that can produce wealth. A beggar may be preoccupied with his own situation to the extent that he doesn’t consider the needs of others. Likewise, he may lack the thought to even detect that others around him might have needs.
The root of wealth is the root of meaningful giving, and only wealth acquired without the twin virtues of thought and service makes the perilous mistake of giving stupidly, simply donating money indiscriminately or attempting to provide free lunches. These types of service would seem to meet the needs of one day’s hungry belly but in the process they undermine the independence and the respectable thought that would allow the impoverished to someday rise above their circumstance. By withholding the example of the producing attributes, the would-be server may in fact destroy those he seeks to aid. He did not and cannot become successful by giving indiscriminately, any more than he could maintain a conversation by doing all the talking. What chance do they have to experience the germination of the qualities that could raise them above their status? What will inspire them to reach out and strengthen society if nothing is asked of them?
The successful man must give, and the greatest thing he can give is a poignant demonstration of those qualities that have made him successful. In so doing, he extends an invitation that, if accepted, will proliferate an enriching influence that will begin to empower society to overcome its evils.