Philanthropy: the third pillar of my life; German TV segment about the NYC field hospital; e-mail to my daughters
1) My parents are both teachers and were one of the first couples to meet and marry in the Peace Corps in 1962, so I spent more than half of my childhood in Morogoro, Tanzania and Managua, Nicaragua. (In between, we lived in California, where my dad was working toward his doctorate in education at Stanford, and where I was one of children tested as part of the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment.)
Here are pictures of my parents, my sister, and me when I was between 3 to 5 years old, living in Tanzania:
Given this background, it won't surprise you to hear that I have a strong "do-gooder" ethos. In addition to my family and my work, my philanthropy is the third pillar of my life.
Much of it is genetic, but some of it was taught to me. I still remember my mom lecturing me in high school that I was among the luckiest people to ever walk the face of the earth and that if I used my good fortune for nothing more than self-enrichment and self-indulgence, she would consider me – and herself – a failure.
Those are wise words that I've tried to instill in my three daughters...
So what does this have to do with investing?
To share this lesson...
It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes my philanthropic activities benefit my business or career. For example, I can't tell you how many times I've been at a charity gala and met someone who became a valued friend, colleague, or mentor.
And here's a recent example: just yesterday, I was working to set up yet another hospital – my third in four days – to treat coronavirus patients when, around midday, I heard that we only needed to set up 56 beds of the 220 that had been delivered because there's been a drop in the number of New Yorkers hospitalized – in other words, our social distancing and other measures appear to be working!
I don't know the details, but I'd guess it's a combination of fewer new hospitalizations per day or more patients being discharged versus admitted, resulting in the net number of patients declining. If this is correct and if it continues, it will be the best news in a long, long time!
This isn't any big secret – I've been writing about it for a week and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and many others have been speaking about it – but it's a valuable additional data point!
2) If you speak German, you might enjoy this 10-minute segment by a German TV show similar to 60 Minutes about the hospital in Central Park at which I volunteered. They interviewed me at length.
3) I thought you might enjoy this e-mail that I sent to my three daughters (ages 23, 20, and 17) last week:
Hi girls,
Pay attention to what I've been doing this week volunteering at the field hospital.
Anytime you're part of a team, whether at work, school, volunteering, or just among friends:
- Show up earlier and leave later than anyone else.
- Always keep yourself busy – there will be plenty of time for rest later. If you can't find work to do, it's because you're not looking hard enough or being creative enough.
- Don't be shy. Ask each person you work with for their name, memorize it, and greet them by name thereafter (and always say your name until you're sure they know it; e.g., "Hi Will, it's Whitney. Can I help you with that?").
- Always be super friendly, cheerful, and grateful. Say "thank you" constantly!
If you consistently do these four things, you will go far in life and be universally respected and loved, and it will come back to benefit you in so many ways you can't even imagine.
But if you REALLY want to knock peoples' socks off, pay attention to what Katharine and I did yesterday when we went to Costco and brought back a carload of snacks and drinks (and what I did providing the shovels, saucers, and sleds to haul mulch, and what Charles and I did providing lunch every day): we took initiative to do some really valuable, unexpected things. The keys to this are:
- Identify needs;
- Come up with smart solutions (sometimes you need to be creative, but often they're obvious, like when I was in the basement getting shovels, saw the sleds, and the light went on... );
- Implement your solutions, ideally without being asked. Just do it! (I generally find it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission); and
- Pay any costs out of your own pocket and don't ask to be reimbursed.
If you always do all eight of these things, the sky's the limit!
Go forth and conquer!
Love,
Daddy
Best regards,
Whitney
P.S. Empire Financial Research and the market are closed tomorrow for Good Friday. Look for the next Empire Financial Daily e-mail on Monday, April 13 after the Weekly Recap. Enjoy the holiday!