“I’m going to share with you a vision that I had because I love you and you feel it. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defence each year, trillions of dollars, correct? Instead, just play with this, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, and it would pay for it many times over, not one human excluded, we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever in peace” – Bill Hicks
Comic legend Bill Hicks would often end a show with this piece of wishful prose and then pretend to be assassinated by the CIA.
Evolution hasn’t moved the needle too far since providing us with opposable thumbs. Think of the damage caused by mostly middle aged, white men over the years. Men who shamefully associate the term ‘leader’ to their name.
Even in Australia with all its wealth and natural resources, have you stopped to look at who is actually making the decisions on our future? Morrison, Joyce, Porter, Dutton, Frydenburg et all. Doesn’t exactly instil confidence does it?, nor do those on the opposite side of the fence.
It’s not just the climate that’s in strife, but anyone disadvantaged by health, age, disability, race or homelessness will have what funding they have now, slowly stripped in order to fund pointless projects of self interest.
I’m a simple person from an extremely humble background, pretty much devoid of materialism growing up, so I’m in the dark when it comes to understanding a tycoon’s thought process.
My parents had little because they had nine kids and two foster kids to raise and their philosophy was akin to something Buddhist:
Take care of those worse off than you, and you shall be rich.
I get so utterly dismayed when I see billionaires blowing their cash on who’s got the biggest rocket powered penis that will take five people into the stratosphere. The last words we mutter as we shuffle off this mortal coil, are in relation to love and family, not to accrued wealth.
Governments spending billions of our tax money on nuclear submarines that will be obsolete by the time they’re launched. Where’s the humanity in all this?
To those billionaires who probably pay less tax than you or I, you do realise you can’t take it with you, don’t you? Why not do something kind and productive that will make a difference in thousands of people’s lives and provide a sustainable legacy for many years to come? Think of the warm, fuzzy feeling you’ll get!
OK smart arse, how do I do it?
Well start by reading this book, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, by Paul Newman and A E Hotchner. Screen legend Newman and Hotchner his neighbour and writer, turned an experimental salad dressing concocted over a few beers in Newman’s basement, into a food company that donates it’s entire profits to charities. Currently that figure is almost US$600m since 1982.
One of my all-time favourite films is Cool Hand Luke from 1967. In it, Newman plays the ultra-cool maverick prisoner and reading this book, I’m convinced he wasn’t far from Luke’s character in real life, unconventional, driven and downright naughty.
Frustrated that he couldn’t buy a 100% natural salad dressing with no preservatives or chemicals, Newman made his own and was happy to sell a few bottles at his local store.
After selling out quickly and with the encouragement from friends, he presented to marketers in some big food companies but got knocked back and that fuelled the ‘Cool Hand Luke’ in him! (What we have here is a failure to communicate)
Using nothing other than his profile he finally found a production team that could make 100% natural food, something that revolutionised the industry as a whole. From salad dressing to spaghetti sauce to popcorn doing nothing other than one-off hilarious PR launches to get the word out, his products were a smash.
Even his wife of fifty years, the acclaimed actress Joanne Woodward, shared her family recipe for lemonade that was handed down through the generations in her home state of Georgia, and that too still sits in supermarket shelves.
All this because he was told it couldn’t be done. (I can eat fifty eggs in an hour). While all this was happening, Newman was still making films such as The Verdict and The Colour of Money, for which he finally won his first Oscar.
On top of that he won four Sports Car Club of America Championships after being told that to start competitive racing at the age of 47 was madness. (Sometimes nuthin’ can be a real cool hand).
After a few years of giving away the profits of Newman’s Own to hundreds of charities, he turned his focus on helping critically sick children and building camps on enormous greenfield sites. Complete with doctors, nurses, volunteers and medical equipment the camps leave nothing to chance and have served nearly 1.5 million children to date.
Under the moniker of ‘The Hole in the Wall Camps’, named after his gang in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there are now several in the US as well as Ireland, France and Israel. Each has their own board of directors but was still overseen by Newman up until his death in 2008. The statistics and key timelines at the back of the book regarding Newman’s philanthropy are mind boggling.
Often in order to set up a camp, Newman reached into his own pocket and upon his death, donated US$20m to his charity. He also started the Scott Newman Centre for drug abuse in honour of his son who died from a drug overdose in 1978.
I found the book to be ‘laugh out loud’ funny at times as Hotchner captures Newman’s disregard for authority and refusal to accept the ‘norm’. It’s a fascinating insight for anyone involved in FMCG, marketing or food production but the key take out is what can be achieved with real intent and purpose.
There are letters from kids and parents that attended the camps in the book that are both funny and heart-warming, and the great man has even delivered some of his best meal recipes using his products. Overall, this book is written with tremendous humility and self-deprecation by both men for what has been a spectacular achievement in philanthropy.
Paul Newman was a high achiever and I’m sure the mega-rich around the world have similar qualities. Bill and Melinda Gates have led the way with their generosity so just imagine what could be achieved if more energy was spent getting things right on earth before sightseeing above it for an elite few.
After fifty years of marriage both Paul and Joanne were interviewed and famously asked as to how they have managed to stay married as long as they had:
Joanne – “Well he may be good looking and sexy, but if he didn’t make me laugh he’d be no good to me.”
Paul – “Why go out for a hamburger when you can have steak at home.”
Here’s a nice little photo collage over the 50 x years of this iconic couple.
