Turning Selfishness Into Selflessness

By John M. Andrist

There are only two kinds of people -- accumulators and distributors. No matter how much money they make, distributors have nothing left over. No matter how little they earn, accumulators always have some left over. This piece is written for the aging accumulators, folks like me.

Six months after we die, everything we have accumulated is gone -- redistributed for somebody else’s pleasure, or sometimes their ruination. I’m selfish enough so I realized some fifteen years ago that I deserved the pleasure of spending some of it, giving it away if you will.

This satisfies a second human longing. Someplace in this journey we call life we come to realize that all the toys we acquire give only temporary pleasure. Real joy and satisfaction comes from the things we do for and give to others.

You just can’t beat turning your natural selfishness into joy until you make that discovery.

The beginning is honestly recognizing when you have more than you are going to need for yourself, and more than your children will really need. That’s a key. We all want to leave something for our children. But only so much can contribute good to their lives. Little joy, and much travail, comes with winning life’s lotteries.

Alas, we accumulators have a hard time shifting gears after a lifetime practicing the art of not spending. So it takes some practice, actually pretty hard work. We’re fighting basic human instinct as persons who have difficulty spending money on ourselves, while contemplating giving it away to someone else, or some cause that we like.

But hey, there is pure joy in discovering the art of turning selfishness into selflessness.

Mind you, I’m not perfect. After giving away half of my income for most of two decades I still have this problem of more savings than I’m going to need for the remaining time God is likely to give me.

A special friend of mine, Sheila Schafer, told me her husband, the late Harold Schafer, once had an accumulation of some $80 million, but gave most of it away before he died. Now, he’s the expert, the guy who really had life figured out. You and I probably have only a pittance in comparison, but just as the Biblical  book of Ecclesiastes reminds us there is a time for everything, accumulators need to realize this discovery is the essence of happiness.