Why do people give? Is it to make this a better world? Is it to give back to society in gratitude? Is it to see a name on a building? Is it a response to peer pressure? In this article, I want to focus on one reason which is not talked about much: People give because it makes them feel good.
Let’s start off with the personal journey of my wife, Fiona, and I. We have been lucky to have built up a small nest egg thanks to the ESOPs and carried interest I picked up over the years. We don’t have a huge amount of money, but enough to know that we have enough. Many years ago, I read an interview where a philanthropist commented that he doesn’t like the term ‘give back’ because it implies that he ‘took too much’. Since then, I have avoided the term ‘give back’ because I also do not believe that I took too much. When we looked at why we gave, we realised that it made us feel good to do so. Having studied at the University of Chicago, I know the importance of self-interest and incentives, and this feel-good feeling was as strong an incentive as anything else.
Read the full Article in Forbes India.
