It is after an accident that we can now talk about the biography of Chuck Feeney, an extraordinary philanthropist and a role model for the world. It’s not possible to know how many people he’s helped, but we can assume it’s thousands, if not millions. He distributed his entire fortune, secretly, and it was only by chance that his name was revealed.
They say Chuck Feeney is the exact opposite of Donald Trump, who has never hidden his particular weakness for money and his mercantile pragmatism; Ferney, on the other hand, is the exact opposite.
“It makes sense to be frugal. -Chuck Feeney-
While Trump was working to make the list of the richest, Chuck Feeney was trying to stay out of it. Feney is said to have won and donated his own money, but the current president of the United States made a fortune working with other people’s money.
Looking at Chuck Feeney’s biography we see that he is not heir to a great fortune, but has managed to make millions of dollars from his own effort, he was born on April 23, 1931 in New Jersey (USA). U. S. A. ). She came from a humble Irish family, newly arrived in North America, made up of a mother who was a nurse and a father who sold insurance.
Feeney was born in full swing of the Great Depression in America, everything was rare at the time, so it was created amid great limitations, his first job was at 10 years old and consisted of selling Christmas cards door-to-door to earn extra money. .
He then enlisted in his country’s Air Force and served in the Korean War. He then took advantage of a veterans government benefits program and was able to complete his graduate studies at Cornell University in New York. There, he graduated as a hotel manager and was the first person in his family to graduate from college.
Chuck Feeney, along with Robert Miller, founded Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) in 1960; he pioneered duty-free shops and began selling products to U. S. troops in other countries. The business began to grow and quickly became a very successful startup.
Within a few years, Feeney was at the forefront of duty-free markets around the world and became a millionaire who, for some, had some “eccentricities. “He had no extravagant tastes, did not defy danger or pay millions in auctions of ridiculous objects. The exotic thing was that he continued to behave humbly.
He didn’t like expensive restaurants and always traveled in economy class, wore a watch that cost $15 and had never been seen at big events, when he already had a great fortune, decided he was more than him and his family. Then, secretly, he created The Atlantic Philanthropies and began giving his money.
Today, Chuck Feeney is the U. S. citizen who proportionally has donated the most money in the country’s history, an estimated $8 million, others have given higher figures, but still get most of his fortune. ‘t: basically, he gave everything he had.
He only reserved two million dollars, which he considered sufficient for him and his family. He currently lives in a rented apartment in San Francisco. No has a car, continues to travel in economy class and still eats in modest places.
Chuck Feeney wanted all his work to be kept secret, however, the process with some of his actions revealed what had happened to his fortune, this ended, for example, with the improvement of the health system in Cuba and Vietnam, also contributing to peace in Ireland. and funding programmes in South Africa.
When asked why he did all this, he simply says he’s happy to know that the world is a better place for what he’s done. He had no particular purpose in making his gifts, he just wanted to make others happy. he himself lives happily with what he is and what he has achieved.