Present Value of Service
There is a fancy term in MBA-speak called the "present value" of money. It basically means that a penny today is worth more than a penny ten years from now. The same principle applies to social change. Service done today to help an individual, a community or the environment is exponentially more valuable than service ten years from now.
You can help a foster youth today, and they can become a productive, happy and tax generating member of society. If we wait ten years to help them they will likely already be in jail or living on the street. The odds of turning their life around will be considerably smaller.
You can help curb climate change today, and you might actually make a difference. Ten years from now it will probably be too late.
The theory of the present value of service runs contrary to the prevailing philosophy in Corporate America. Service and philanthropy are said to be things you do later in your career and in retirement (when you have more money, time and experience). While you may have greater assets in all of these areas later in life, the theory of the present value of service greatly discounts the value of those assets relative to more modest but timely assets today.
The next time someone tells you they plan to give back later in their career, share the theory of the present value of service. Encourage them not to wait another day.
aaron, above is great. will use to our alums upcoming messages, crediting you of course! But it is exactly what CP volunteers were saying, not quite as clearly as you expressed, last night at our annual CP volunteers dinner party...