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Epilogue
Assuming you have been wildly successful in building an e-business you might
want to think about how to give something back. I think we are all aware of how
well the economy has been doing in recent years. The unprecedented growth
has resulted in prosperity for many people beyond what they may have imagined
was possible. For many people the amassing of a million dollars of net worth
was a dream they didn't really expect to happen. Now many of those same
people likely dream of $10 million. Those with $10 million dream of $100 million
and those with $100 million dream of being billionaires! Much is being written
about the wealth of so many – even after the huge drop in the early part of 2001.
At the same time there are much larger numbers of people who have not been so
fortunate. There are many people who go to bed hungry. Even in "affluent"
communities there are long lists of people waiting to gain access to barely
habitable Federal housing. For reasons of health, location, skills, misfortune, or
disadvantage there are large numbers of people in need.
Who is responsible -- the government or those who are more fortunate? Many
would agree it is at least in part the latter? What can be done? A lot. For those
of us who have been fortunate there is a range of ways to help out. Basically,
there are so many ways to help that there are no excuses for not doing so. The
means to help follow a hierarchy as do so many things. At the base of the
pyramid of helping is giving money anonymously. This can be done through the
United Way, churches or synagogues, private foundations, various national
appeals, or directly to pinpointed charities. Web sites abound.
A second level up the pyramid is to not be anonymous; to directly support causes
that are meaningful or important to you or your. friends and family. A couple of
years ago I attended a reception of the Society of Alexis de Toqueville, a group
of contributors to the United Way who exceed a threshold of $10,000 in giving
per year. At the reception I was astounded both at how many people were there
and how many people were not there. It was initially impressive to see a group
of 150 or so in the room. Some quick arithmetic suggested that the giving
represented was probably greater than $2 million. On the other hand seeing that
there were just a very few people (literally) from any one of the major companies
represented (GE, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Texaco, etc.) made it
painfully clear how small the participation really was.
Given that the stocks of all these companies (and many more) have appreciated
so much and the additional fact that these companies all provide a corporate
match of the employee gift shows how much potential there really is. Suppose,
for example, an employee had options to buy company stock at $25 per share
and the current price of the stock was $50 per share. A gift of just 100 shares of
stock would be worth $5,000. The company match would make the gift worth
$10,000. The cost of the donation to the employee would be $2,500 to exercise
the options plus a capital gains tax (assuming the donated shares had been held
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