Don't Make Beggars

November 1, 2024

“When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers.” - Kevin Kelly

The Salwen family exited the plane after 10 hours and walked across the tarmac to the terminal in Accra, Ghana. One year earlier, Hannah, the oldest of the two Salwen kids, had had an epiphany; if their family had less, other people could have more. After a collective recognition of personal excess and lots of discussion, the Salwens decided it was time to act. They could live on a lot less. Half, in fact. They sold their $1.5 million home, bought something down the street for roughly half the price, and devoted the next year to researching how they could use the remaining money to make the world a better place.

A year of discussion and deliberation took them from Atlanta to Accra. They partnered with the Hunger Project, an international nonprofit focused on teaching and empowering people to build a better future for themselves. While they had several concerns about the trip and their ability to help the locals, their main concern was this; over the previous 50 years, $2.4 trillion had been spent on African aid, and there wasn't much to show for it. Disease, poverty, and famine had even increased in some areas in spite of the help provided. How could the Salwen family make a difference where so many others had failed?

While in Ghana, they worked with Dr. Naana Agyemang-Mensah, the director for the Ghanaian chapter of the Hunger Project. She talked proudly about the progress made by the various tribes in the area she was in charge of. She explained that a big problem with giving aid to others is that unearned resources tend to be consumed inefficiently. Gifts are temporary, and largely wasted. They also tended to make the targeted people more dependent on others. The goal of the Hunger Project was (and still is today) to empower people, not to make them into beggars.

When first meeting Dr. Naana, many tribal chiefs would bring a list of things they needed (food, medical supplies, a new well, etc.). After working together to teach the people to help themselves, the chiefs stopped asking for things and started reporting proudly on the accomplishments of their people.

Kevin Salwen, the husband and father of the Salwen clan, had this to say about the experience.

“I realized how much tougher that kind of transformation is than digging a well and moving on to the next community. For the villagers, real change requires teamwork, shared sacrifice, and faith in one another. For the nonprofit groups, these efforts take time, consistency, reinforcement, patience. This is not aid; it is metamorphosis.”

This is a powerful principle. Whether you are a boss, a parent, or a philanthropist, your job is not to take care of people. It is to empower others to take care of themselves. Don’t make beggars. Make capable people.

Teaching someone to do something, giving them responsibility over that thing, then holding them accountable for it will do more good for them than any amount of gifts will ever do.

Is it better to pay for your child’s university, or help them save money themselves?

Is it better to give someone water, or teach them how to dig a well?

With this in mind, the Salwen family was able to help change the lives of hundreds of people living in 30 villages. They funded the building of a new school, though the villagers were required to raise money alongside them and then build it themselves. They helped fund the growing of crops in the villages, which in turn provided food for the people and resources for them to sell to earn more money.

As a leader, your goal should be to create more leaders. If you are a boss, help people to be able to replace you someday. If you are a parent, teach your children how to grow up, take care of themselves, and set out on their own.

Don’t make beggars. Empower others.