There is a truth that all eventually come to understand: you can receive all the riches in the world, and it will never compare to the joy you receive when you give back.
Running a business can often feel all-consuming and overwhelming. However, as you seek to adhere to your vision and mission and find success, there is no greater feeling than “giving back” to those causes that matter to you and your family. When you’re doing something for one person or for society or doing something for your neighborhood or for a particular cause that is close to you, few things can compare to the satisfying feeling that comes from making a difference – beyond your business.
A past Forbes article entitled, The Science Of Giving Back: How Having A Purpose Is Good For Body And Brain spoke to the personal benefit we experience by giving back, “Not only does it have the obvious benefit of helping others, but it’s apparently one of the most therapeutic things we can do for ourselves… lots of previous research has confirmed that having a purpose outside yourself is good not only for your mental health, it’s also good for your physical health, longevity and even your genes.”
There are many means of helping others. My maternal grandfather took joy in giving clothing and books to students of his who were in need. More often than not, the student never found out who gave them those much-needed supplies. Giving doesn’t have to be extravagant. There are avenues to be charitable with simple things, such as buying a book or donating clothing. Education alone is a great value.
However you chose to give—just the act of it alone can make the biggest difference. Take the “zoom in, zoom out” perspective, where one looks at the immensity of the universe and then compares that to the immensity of atomic emptiness, zooming from the outer reaches of the galactic spiral to the relative size of quarks within a nucleus.
It would seem that any action in such vast spaces would be inconsequential, but that is the furthest thing from the truth. Nothing more than the excitation of electrons can create laser beams capable of conducting eye surgery, and the action of stars dozens of light years from Earth can have dramatic effects on our planet. But so, too, in a positive way, can the smallest action of kindness have the grandest impact on our world…and ourselves.