Long-time readers know that my hobby since 2003 has been teaching entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe. Sometimes people say, “It’s good that you give back.”
I know they mean well, but I have to say that I object. The idea of “giving back” implies that I took greater value than I gave for the profits I earned. It means that people who have done nothing to create my wealth somehow have a right to a share of the fruit of my labor.
This is a communist idea. Literally. The individual owes the community, always and by definition.
But to have a moral claim on my production is to have a claim on my life.
I am not the property of the state. Nor do I belong to my brothers ands sisters. The idea that I am their property is the stuff slavery is made of.
Furthermore, entrepreneurs are among the most powerful forces for good on our planet. Even if motivated by profit, as Adam Smith pointed out over 200 years ago, their pursuit of self-interest benefits all. It is this force that’s brought us refrigeration, transportation, medicine, and a quality of life beyond the wildest dreams of kings and queens of ages past. It has made our world wealthy enough to care for the less fortunate in more and better ways than was ever possible before. Such creators owe nothing that must be given back.
But these views don’t mean I don’t care for my brothers and sisters!
I feel their sorrows and rejoice in their triumphs, as does any human being with a shred of decency. And I want to make the world a better place. That’s why one of my heroes is Don Quixote. It doesn’t matter when I fight for the right whether I win or lose—only that I stay true to the quest.
Robert Heinlein, the master of 20th-century science fiction, is another of my great heroes. He was famous for helping aspiring writers, sometimes even giving them money when they were in need. But instead of asking them to pay it back, he asked them to “pay it forward.” This way, Heinlein’s original generosity didn’t stop at the first person he helped. It was multiplied by those helped by those whom he helped. The wave of help he initiated is still sweeping the world—and I’m proud to be a small part of it.
How do I pay it forward? One of my favorite ways remains teaching young people, helping them, and sometimes even investing in their ventures. You can find out more about this year’s entrepreneurship camp at the CYCLE Lithuania 2018 website.
If you have college-age students in your family or know of bright young people who would enjoy and benefit from such an event, please send them this article or the link above. They might want to join in the fun.
If you would like to support this effort (and get a tax deduction), you can do so via the CYCLE page on the Liberty International web site. I don’t get paid for this—I give money myself—and all of it goes toward education that matters.
If that’s not your cup of tea, that’s fine.
I still want to encourage anyone who’s fallen into the “give back” trap to retool their thinking.
Ideas matter.
Don’t give in to the idea that you are the property of others.
