Freedom from the money culture | Lynne Twist | TEDxBerkeley

I learned my lessons about money from an unlikely source not Business School here at Berkeley or at Stanford where I went sorry about that but but from people I used to call poor and I actually did call them poor most people do but when you actually work hand a hand shoulder to shoulder with people that I used to call poor you realize there's nothing poor about them and to call them poor is to demean them and ourselves because what's poor is their circumstances not them in fact those circumstances provide a kind of environment that makes them strong resilient innovative in fact they exhibit more courage to live through a day than you and I are going to need in our entire lifetime it's inappropriate to call these people poor that's their circumstances but not them they're whole and complete and actually totally awesome I also learned a lot of lessons from people I used to call rich and we make the same mistake when we label those people by their financial circumstances although they look glamorous and what everybody seems to want but when you work side-by-side as I have with the people that I used to call rich there's a suffering there too there's a misunderstanding about who they are people relate to them in a weird way and they relate to themselves in a weird way they're whole and complete people living in the a band flow and sometimes tyranny of excess resources which can be completely confusing we live in a culture around money that's sick that makes us a little sick where they're suffering everywhere from the people living in abject poverty to people living in massive wealth and a lot of us in between because that culture actually is based in a whole lot of lies promises that never get fulfilled and a misunderstanding of the world in my view I learned some very very special lessons on one day in my life many many many many years ago before most of you here were born when I was a young fundraiser for The Hunger Project and at the Hunger Project office the work of ending world hunger we got a call from a huge food company actually at that time it was the largest food company in the United States and I think the world and they'd had a scandal they'd been caught red-handed doing something that was actually illegal and shamed the company and they were embarrassed and humiliated and they were scrambling because their stock was plummeting and they had this terrible image and we got a call from that company saying they wanted to give a contribution to ending world hunger a little suspicious but I was dispatched to this Midwestern city I went to a what was called a breakfast meeting with the CEO of what the largest food company in the world and this gigantic building I went all the way to the top of this gigantic building in the Midwest and in this man's office first of all he sat behind I think the biggest desk I've ever seen in my life was huge and behind him were Florida s'en ceiling windows and this was an early-morning meeting I thought it was a breakfast meeting but it was just named breakfast because was early 7:30 and I sat on this side of the table and he sat with his back to the floor-to-ceiling windows and the Sun was rising behind him and I know everybody's been in this situation I could not see this guy he was backlit I look at this man very very important man but I never saw his eyes and I'm sitting there on this side of the table he could see everything about me and I do I had 15 minutes 15 minutes to talk about ending world hunger so I needed to get right on with it so I did the best I could to inspire him and you know say something really moving and I got into it I was totally into it and then I looked at watch I had my 15 minutes and I'd already talked for eight minutes I thought God he's got to say something here so I was quiet and then he didn't as far as I know he didn't say anything he opened the drawer on his side of the desk pulled out a yellow already filled out computer check made out to The Hunger Project for fifty thousand dollars now I was a young fund raisers his years and years ago that would have been the biggest contribution I'd ever raised but something else was happening there and when he picked up that check out of the drawer and he pushed it from him side of the desk this giant desk over to my side of the desk as it came over my side of the desk I felt the guilt and shame and wrongdoing and out integrity of the company coming with that money like a dump I picked up the check I had the presence of mind to do that I thanked him but the presence of mine to thank him then he stood up and I I don't remember fee even said a word I don't even know and this kind of cardboard cutout of guy reached toward me with his hand and said thank you as if I was dismissed I put the check in my briefcase and I walked out of there and I felt sick to my stomach I felt dirty I felt used I I felt yucky I went down to the street level the building was really high so I started to get nauseous going down thought it was the elevator but actually it was this check and I took a taxi to the airport I was due in New York that night it says you know early in the morning dew' in New York that night at 7:00 6:30 7:00 p.m. for a fundraising event at my friend Peters Harlem Church we were going to convene in the church basement he wanted me to raise money from his wonderful friends in Harlem and african-american church there so I plenty of time to get there but I got caught in a Midwestern storm and landed in Tulsa and then we took off and landed in st. Louis etc we finally get to New York hours and hours and hours and hours later this is way back before cell phones and Internet I was already late when I landed at LaGuardia it's raining cats and dogs the storm is in New York too like rush rush rush to the church in Harlem not really clear where I was going just frantic you know how you are when you're late I get there two hours late two hours late to this meeting in the church basement I had no way of telling them I was going to be late I run down the steps of the church basement okay it's raining outside like crazy there's buckets all all around the church basement for leaks there's a cement floor painted gray and 75 people in folding chairs sitting there waiting for their speaker me my friend Peter is telling jokes or I don't know lighting his hair on fire doing something to keep them there and finally he sees me I see he says Lindsey R and I run up the aisle apologize I turn around and look at these people and it was that kind of fluorescent lighting that sometimes is in a basement Church and I turned around and I saw these people and I could see every face not just one or two all 75 people beautiful extraordinarily attentive somehow awesome African American people I was the only white person in the room and I got moved like I am now and I started to talk about the work we were doing in Africa and I got really into it and they they hung on every word I actually see them that was very helpful and then it was time to ask for the money if you're a fundraiser if you've ever fundraise there's that moment in the moment came and so I did like a really really good ask and you could hear a pin drop and there was plop plop plop in the buckets and the rain outside and then a woman stood up a elegant african-american slender woman I'd say she was in her 70s she had gray hair parted in the middle and tidy bun at the back of her neck and she had on a maid's uniform formal old-fashioned uniform in a raincoat on and a purse on our arm and she was tall and slender and she stood up and she said my name is Gertrude and I like you she said oh good and I liked what you said and I want you to know something she said money is just like water it flows through every life doesn't belong to any of us it belongs to all of us or none of us some people have a rushing river flowing through their life some of us just a little trickle like me I don't have a bank account I don't have a checkbook she said I don't have credit cards but I have money and I earned it from doing some people's wash that's how I earn it and I'm proud of that and I have money in my purse and I want to give it to you and I want you to know that this money that's like water is a carrier that's why we call it a currency it's a current and as it flows through my life I know it's my job to pass it on where I'll do the most good for the most folks so I'm going to give my fifty dollars in my purse to you and she walked up the aisle of that church basement and by this point I was crying I think she was crying I can't really remember and she gave me her $50 in tens and fives and ones and some change and she gave me a big hug and then every single person in that church basement stood behind her and one by one they gave me their $16.75 seventy two dollars and three cents ten dollars six dollars and I didn't have a basket so I put it in my briefcase at the bottom of which was the yellow computer check for $50,000 facedown and by the end of that extraordinary experience we were singing we were crying it was awesome and I went back to my hotel and I put the $50,000 check on my bed and the 637 dollars and 33 cents which was the total of the amount of money that was given to me in cash in the church basement and I saw this money this 633 dollars and 37 seven cents is a carrier of love commitment courage this is going to do more for ending hunger than this $50,000 so I sat down wrote a letter to the CEO and I sent the money back now that would be the end of the story but there's a really awesome PS and that's this three years later in my office in San Francisco I got a handwritten letter from that CEO and that letter said I'll never forget the return of that $50,000 it really rocked my world and the letter that you wrote saying when the companies committed to ending world hunger and this money carries their commitment we'd love to accept the money but right now we choose to send it back that's what my letter had said and he said I left the company after that year got my retirement package a lot of money and I started paying attention to ending world hunger for the first time I was head of a food company it didn't occur to me that I retired to pay attention and real hunger I I followed the progress of The Hunger Project and I've been deeply impressed deeply moved and I want to know if you would now accept with all my heart my personal check that comes from my commitment my engagement my intentionality my participation in ending world hunger for 250,000 dollars and I did [Music] so what I want to tell you is I have learned if Gertrude told me so beautifully that money is like water when it flows it purifies it cleanses it makes things grow it makes things green when it's held and hoarded just like water it is toxic stagnant it actually makes you sick we need to move it it comes through our lives in a way that allows us to pass it on to do the most good for the most folks and if you recognize that you are enough that you have enough that the universe constantly meets you and gives you exactly what you want rather than living in the mindset the crazy unconscious mindset of scarcity chasing more all the time if you let go of trying to get more of what you don't really need which is mostly what we're brainwashed to want more of you can use all that energy that's tied up in the chase and turn to make a difference with what you have already have not just money but everything when you make a difference with what you already have when you own it when you nourish it when you make a difference with it when you share it it expands let me say that again this is the principle of sufficiency if you let go of trying to get more of what you don't really need it frees up all that energy tied up in this in the chase to turn and pay attention to what you have when you pay attention what you have when you nourish it when you make a difference with it when you share it it expands what you appreciate appreciates thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 101,768

Rating: 4.8728323 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Business, Compassion, Empathy, Global issues, Happiness, Money, Morality, Philanthropy, Poverty

Id: jQviPghhtus

Length: 15min 27sec (927 seconds)

Published: Fri May 05 2017