SubscribeMon 24 Sep 2007
Using The Library to Find the Billionaire Who Wasn’t
Posted by dong under Education , Frugality , The Big ThingsI was reading BusinessWeek at the Gym. One of the perks of going to gym is I catch up on bunch of magazines I like to read, but don’t have time or the inclination to read all the time. Having gym membership is like having a subscription to Fortune, BusinessWeek, and Entertainment Weekly. There are other magazines at the gym, but those are the ones I read. My last workout was dedicated to BusinessWeek and the bench press.
BusinessWeek reviewed The Billionaire Who Wasnt, a biography of Chuck Feeney. Chuck Feeney may not be be common name, but most of us are quite familiar with his enterprise. Along with his partner, Robert Miller, Chuck started Duty Free Shopper, the ubiquitous Duty Free shops that we find at airports worldwide.
Apparently until he was outed in the 90s with the Sale of Duty Free Shopper, Chuck has been giving millions of dollars anonymously via Atlantic Philanthropies for the greater part of the last quarter century. In many ways he was the innovator of “giving while living” which is all the rage these days. Chuck Feeney besides being a world class philanthropist, he’s also known to be model of modesty and humility. He flies Economy, and buys his suits off the rack, according to anecdotes told of him. Chuck Feeney is the type of person we should all strive to be.
So what does the library have to do with this post you may ask? I thought about buying the book at Amazon.com which is being released in October, but I decided to the give the Library a shot first. I didn’t even have to leave my home. I recently signed up for the Boston Public Library’s online system. I got my pin last week in the mail. Using my pin, I was able to put a hold on the book for when the library gets delivery of the book. I found myself luckily in the pole position with first dibs on the book. Whenever the the book gets in, I’ll drop by the Library on my way home from work and pick it up. As convenient as Amazon, and free.
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September 24th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Looking forward to your thoughts on the book after reading it, Dong. Good call with the online library tools!
September 24th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Sounds interesting.
Also, using the gym magazines makes so much sense. After all, you’ve got time there to entertain yourself (at least if you do the treadmills/ellipticals/etc), so why pay for membership and subscriptions when you can get two at the same time?
September 24th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I saw that article in Business Week about the book. It sounds like a great story. I can’t wait to read the book when it comes out. Of course I’ll check it out from the library.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks for the heads up on the book. I also requested it from my library.
September 25th, 2007 at 8:56 am
[...] at the Gym during my visit last week was a treasure trove of information. In addition to learning about Chuck Feeney, I learned something new about the Mortgage Deduction that I didn’t know about. Of course [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Feeney gave much of his money to Irish universities and causes, which is why the writer is an Irish Times journalist. I read some extracts in that paper last month. It’s worth noting it doesn’t appear to have been all roses for Feeney. His long marriage broke up over the change in focus/lifestyle and it’s been suggested that his relationship with his lawyer is a little odd.