Give More to Earn More

Why do some extremely knowledgeable or wealthy people squeeze every penny and bit of knowledge with a tight fist, while some who have little give a significant share of what they have?

Nine years ago, I traveled to Singapore for a month; someone on the street asked me if I got a couple of Singaporean dollars; I looked at him, wondering why someone who seemed financially comfortable asked for a couple of dollars.

I only had a single coin of one Singaporean dollar, so I gave it to him, but he insisted on the second one. I was astonished! That wasn’t polite. I said I only got one dollar; he looked at me with an expression of “what is wrong with you, dude” then he turned his back and left.

Two days later, I got in a taxi with a friendly gentleman driver; he kept talking about how Singaporean people are incredibly polite; I said, huh? Let me tell you about this story; he smiled and said, we in Singapore help each other all the time; the guy probably wanted to take the metro and didn’t have enough coins to buy a ticket; we rarely explain a lot and expect others to give no question asked.

On the one hand, that was weird, but at the same time, it was beautiful; that sense of generosity and mutual support has made Singapore one of the world’s most progressive and safe cities.