The hero (living in a rented apartment)

“In America, anyone can become president … and that’s the problem!”, quipped comedian George Carlin.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little over the Punch and Judy show — watching two cranky old blokes beat each other up, with the last man standing becoming … the leader of the free world.

Are these two really the best the ‘greatest nation on earth’ has got?

Well, let me introduce you to another old bloke who might just restore your faith in the US of A.

His name is Chuck Feeney.

Chuck is 89 years old, and lives with his wife in a small rented apartment in San Francisco.

He will die flat broke.

And yet Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey call him their ‘hero’.

Chuck was born in the Depression, and as a young man answered his call of duty. Yet it was during the war that he started a little side hustle, selling duty-free booze to fellow US soldiers stationed in Europe.

When Chuck got back from the war he continued bootstrapping his little business, working night and day. And a few decades later he’d built it into the largest duty free shop empire in the world.

Here’s where the hero part comes in.

Chuck is the exact opposite of Donald Trump: he’s a real billionaire who is both humble and kind.

Question: What does a down-to-earth bloke who wears a $10 Casio watch, owns one pair of shoes and flies economy do with his wealth?

Answer: He decided to give it all away.

Even better, he did it anonymously.

Yes, for decades Chuck secretly gave away his billions. And he’d have continued along that way, except that when he sold his business in 1996 a dispute with a business partner exposed him as one of the biggest philanthropists in history.

Yet his story gets even better.

After the news broke, he was invited to a secret billionaires dinner in New York City.

Oprah was there. So were Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and several other billionaires around the table.

Chuck spent the night telling his story and encouraging his fellow billionaires to follow his lead and “give away your money while you’re living … I’m sure you’ll like it”.

Over the course of that dinner, Chuck inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to kick off their Giving Pledge, which so far has convinced 210 billionaires to commit to giving away at least half their net worth.

“He is my hero. He is Bill Gates’s hero. He should be everybody’s hero”, says Buffett.

Back to comedian George Carlin, who said: “When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.”

Well, right now Uncle Sam is putting on a helluva freak show.

Yet, for all its faults, the US has an amazingly entrepreneurial culture. No tall poppy syndrome. And when they make it big, they give big.

Tread Your Own Path!