April 11, 2008
Last week’s Big Give focused on two people facing their mortality. The objective for the contestants was to fulfill the last wishes of both unfortunate souls. For one, that meant arranging the chance to perform at Carnegie Hall. For another, it simply meant the peace of mind of knowing his family would be financially ok should the worst happen. Both stories were touching, but I had trouble taking anything away from the show at first. As wonderful as the effort was (and as grateful as the recipients were), I simply wasn’t (for whatever reason) inspired. My wife hit on why when I brainstormed with her on what I should write.
I’ve always said my greatest regret, on my deathbed, would be having regrets at all. No offense to all the wonderful religions of the world, but I firmly believe I get one shot at this life. I can’t speak for the beyond. I wouldn’t presume to know what’s next. I do know that, had I created an entire race of beings and placed them on a world, I would want them to live their lives to the fullest and make the most of the time they have and the gift I’d given them.
With that in mind, my take-away (suddenly I’m craving carry-out Chinese food) is that you should do everything in your power to fulfill your own dreams now. Don’t wait. Don’t put them off. Live a life worth living, rich with adventure, full of wonderful stories and surrounded by people worth having around. Don’t waste time. Time won’t last forever.
Categories: Inspiration.
Tags: big give, dreams, life, live, Oprah
April 5, 2008
With another episode of The Big Give right around the bend, I thought I should take a minute to address the lesson I took away from the last one. I’ve taken to watching The Big Give with a notebook in hand, jotting down the activities of each contestant and recording my thoughts. There were plenty of touching moments and one particularly surprising incident in which Sheg goes to perform a random act of kindness and discovers the intended recipient just lost her daughter two hours before he arrived. But the most poignant moment for me came in the last minutes of the show.
Stephen, whose last task involved cleaning up Elephant poop at a local zoo, found himself concerned that he needed to do more. His task felt weak and he was legitimately concerned that it wouldn’t be enough to keep him in the running. So he tacked on another task and volunteered at what I believe was a half-way house for, among other things, recovering addicts (sorry, folks, nature called and I missed exactly what the facilities function is). While cleaning dishes, he found himself paired up with a down-on-his-luck gentleman; a recovering addict. The two chatted amicably while they worked and Steve listened attentively as the man related his story. It ended with the man expressing gratitude - not for money (none was exchanged) but simply for the kindness and respect Steve had shown. It turns out the best thing Stephen could do for the man was treating him as an equal and seeing past his addiction to the person behind the story.
As I pointed out in my previous post, there’s more to people than what you see on the surface. There’s a human with feelings behind the boss you consider little more than an authority figure or pain in your tail. There are legitimate feelings and a need to be heard in people you might be inclined to pass off as shallow or two-dimensional. However contrary your life and belief system might be to another individual, there’s something there worth being attentive to…, worth hearing. Oprah’s Big Give taught me that one of the most important kindnesses I can perform is to take the time to listen, take the time to absorb the story behind the person and, most importantly, show them the respect to which they are entitled.
Categories: Inspiration, Values and Ethics.
Tags: big give, kindness, listening, Oprah, respect
March 12, 2008
Ok, I’m a fairly typical guy so I haven’t watched more of Oprah’s Big Give than my wife forced me to watch (10 minute’s worth) before stumbling off in my loincloth, club hefted over my shoulder, to scratch myself and resume my quest for fire. Ogg cook meat now. But I did get the post-show highlights from my wife and browsed some articles about it and I’m a little annoyed at the cynicism rampant in the media today.
Several stories I read were written by authors who seemingly went out of their way to devalue the premise of the show by pointing to the convenient access to corporate sponsorship Oprah’s team of do-gooders enjoyed. “Hey, it isn’t like it’s coming out of her pocket,” they implied, “the tab is being picked up by insert-corporate-sponsor-here!” They suggested (without having the testicular fortitude to come right out and clearly state) that Oprah’s generosity is somehow less deserving of praise given the commercial revenue the show surely generated.
I’m a simple person and my feeling is this… how it happens doesn’t matter as long as nobody gets hurt. Ok, Oprah may not be dipping into her own personal savings account to pay out the prize, but she is giving her time and her celebrity power to the cause. What’s that time worth? Salary.com has a cool salary timer that allows you to compare your real-time earnings against the rich and famous. I won’t tell you how my income from my day job stacked up but I will confess to feeling a little emasculated after running the comparison. Go here to try Salary.com’s Celebrity Salary Comparison tool for yourself. The site estimates Oprah’s hourly earnings at $111,500. I repeat…, hourly. In the time it has taken me to write this sentence she has earned over $400. To put that further into perspective, if you were paid $100,000.00 per year, in the time it would take you to earn enough to buy one McDonald’s Big Mac, Oprah would have earned enough to buy 2238 (according to Salary.com’s Burg-o-meter). Now apply that to the amount of time she personally invested in Oprah’s Big Give. Think of everything that goes into a production like Oprah’s Big Give
- Conceptualization
- Meetings
- Scripting/Writing
- Travel
- Sponsorship Solicitation
- Interviews and Research
- Filming
- A random assortment of other things I know nothing about
Add that all up and how many hours do you think she’s given? Yes, television is a long hall full of smoke and mirrors but that doesn’t change the fact that Oprah has likely given tens of MILLIONS to this project in her valuable time alone.
Say what you will about Oprah. I know it’s popular to slam the successful, but, as a very insightful friend who runs thaiphoonblog.com once told me, opinion cannot be substituted for fact. Regardless of where the actual prize money originates or how much her star power served to influence the corporate sponsors who are really shelling out the prize, Oprah is giving BIG to those to whom she has no obligation beyond her own kindness. Being wealthy is the just reward her compassion and dedication to her craft has earned. Rather than pursuing the popular American pastime of hunting for the flaws in anybody so brazen as to be more successful than average, perhaps we should be content that there’s at least one person out there trying to do good with their success.
Categories: Charity.
Tags: big give, money, Oprah, salary
