Giftvesting

"Whenever you feel ‘short' or in ‘need' of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for money, a smile, love, friendship."
~ Robert Kiyosaki



I like the maxim that the more you give, the more you will receive.

Thus, I tend to believe that by giving more to our children -- giving them better care as young individuals, giving more of them better education, giving them more love -- we will all reap more than we can imagine from this investment.

My only problem with the above is that, conceptually, the idea of "investment" is not equivalent to the idea of "giving." Investment is self-centered, and giving is other-centered. In this age of social-entrepreneurship, do we really not have a word that encompasses both the altruism of giving and the self-interest of investing? Doesn't our future as a collective entity require such a harmonious mixture of cooperation for OUR sake and for MY sake?

Perhaps we need a new word. Perhaps we don't have a word because we're not even thinking like this. Or maybe we're not thinking like this because we have no word.

While clever linguists can begin the work of co-creating/discovering a snazzier word, I'm planning to figure out how to start "giftvesting" in my fellow man, in whatever way I can, everyday.

Care to join me?




Image by Mr. Kris, used under a Creative Commons license.