Ask Not What You Can Get, Ask How You Can Give

Ask Not What You Can Get, Ask How You Can Give Last night in Atlanta, amid the overwhelming tall buildings and sexy Southern accents, someone asked us a question: Why are you doing this? But the implicit question was: What do you plan on getting from dedicating a year of your lives to a 100-city free tour? It’s strange: we don’t look at it this way. We’re not on the road for ten months to get anythingâ€"ours is a journey of giving. We do, however, get satisfaction from adding value to others’ livesâ€"but that’s not all we get: we always get more whenever we give. It’s cringeworthy whenever we see people who attempt to get without first giving, to take without contributing. Scientists have a name for this kind of organism: a parasite. The key to giving, then, is simple: add value first without any expectation of receiving anything in return. Do this with enough frequency and you’ll get way more than you give. As a result of our giving, people have given back to us immensely: Everything That Remains reached the top ten of all books on Amazon as of the date of this writing (thank you!). More than 75,000 people RSVP’d for our last tour. We’ve been featured all over the media, and more than four million people will read our words this year. It turns out when you add value to other people’s lives, they’re eager to share the message with their friends and familyâ€"to add value to their lives. Adding value is a basic human instinct. That’s why we do this: we hope to serve others. Everything else is a wonderful bonus. If you find value in The Minimalists, consider donating a dollar.