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Bo Bennett
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"Bo"

Devoid of conventional business wisdom, Bo Bennett has amassed a fortune of over $23 million dollars by creating his own success philosophy. Business is business, but business by Bo can help you find success!

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April 2008 Posts »

» Doing the Right Thing For the Wrong Reason
Sat 12th @ 8:09 AM

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Business By Bo (Bo)

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Doing the Right Thing For the Wrong Reason

Saturday, April 12th @ 8:09 AMpost viewed 753 times

I live in a very affluent town where once a year we have an auction for our PTA (Parent-Teacher Association). This event is held at a local country club, where attendees don their fanciest threads, call their babysitters, and make a night on the town out of it. The event is always a huge success and raises a significant amount of money for a good cause. So what's the problem?

An auction like this is the adult equivalent of a being at a high school party surrounded by your "friends" chanting, "DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!..." It is also an opportunity for those with money to let everyone else know it without flat out saying it. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the good in humanity, but this is one of those cases where I can't help but see adult peer pressure and the need to brag overpower the altruistic desire to help the benefiting organization.

In business, we see this all around us. Don't get me wrong, I am all for a healthy planet, but this whole "green" campaign is really getting to me. Just about everywhere you look businesses are "going green" AND making sure everyone know about it. I wonder how many of these decisions to "go green" come from the founders/CEOs and how many come from the Marketing departments? At the end of the day, the overall result is a good thing -- there is no question about it, but on a personal level, are these good things being done for the right reasons?

The fact is, when doing good things it is almost impossible to escape the social benefits that come with these good deeds, and very often only you know your true motivation. I have tremendous respect for the people in my town who anonymously donated to the PTA before or after the auction*, the businesses who implement "green" policies and procedures without getting the marketing department involved, and anyone else who does good things, for the right reasons.

* I did not donate anonymously... I just thought of that now. We did win a snow blower in the silent auction part though.

Comments

a guest said on Sunday, April 13th @ 5:58 PM:

I disagree with you. I feel it is important for people to know who to thank and who are responsible for the good things happening around them. I think it's important to stand for good works and to hold your head up high when you do. There is nothing wrong with this. Don't feel ashamed of being a great person who helps by someone else who isn't as great as you, Bo.
Wendy Haber

Bo said on Sunday, April 13th @ 6:12 PM:

From what you wrote, you do not necessarily disagree with me. If I understand you correctly, you state that it is important to be proud of the good things you do for others. I could not agree more. Perhaps I was not as clear as I could have been. In the post I state two examples: 1) donating to a) show off wealth or b) out of peer pressure and 2) "going green" as a marketing ploy. It is this that troubles me. And I am not sure you can actually disagree with me anyway since I was just stating my opinion :)

wendywrites said on Monday, April 14th @ 10:10 AM:

To clarify my statement....When you are on the receiving end of kindness and what you really need is a REAL friend, when someone gives anonymously, it feels like the person wants distance or doesn't want to be bothered or is too busy to extend the hand of friendship. Sometimes it's nice to know who to thank when you receive a kindness. Sometimes you need to put a face to a gift that was given. When someone gives anonymously, it feels like a gift was thrown at your door in the middle of the night and the person runs away because they don't want to be seen, they don't want to be involved in anything more than buying the gift.

Yes, it is kind to give, even if it is anonymously. I'm just thinking about it from how it feels on the receiving end when one is having a difficult time and feels there are no friends surrounding you. For example, I've never been homeless but I read a magazine article that said that a homeless person was changed because because someone was kind and smiled at them over a period of time. Sometimes you need to know who is the person behind the gift. It's like the parent who doesn't have the time for their son or daughter but they buy them things when the greatest gift is time and that's what the child wants.

I think you're terrific, Bo. You are one of my all time heroes. Wendy Haber