Jeff Bezos Will Donate $ 124 Billion in Charity

Maslow’s theory of Need Hierarchy propounds a pyramid of needs in which the top human need is the need for Self-Actualization. This means that when a person has achieved all the lower levels of needs then he reaches the top of the pyramid of needs. Though very rarely we can see such levels of human behavior the theory is time-tested.

 The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos said that he would donate $124 billion   to charity, making him the latest billionaire to pledge to donate his vast fortune during his lifetime

In an interview given to CNN and reported by Ankita Garg of Times of India, the Billionaire businessman has committed that he will give away most of his wealth of approximately $124 Bn for the cause of mankind and specifically to manage climate change. Reportedly, he would give away $10 Bn over the next 10 years through the Bezos Earth Fund founded by him.

An American Entrepreneur who is synonymous with e-commerce in the present decade, Bezos was named the richest person in modern history in the world in the year 2018. He resigned from the post of CEO of Amazon to become the lifetime Executive Chairman of the company. He is known for his innovative ideas from his youth while he was in high school when he started his business by conducting an educational summer camp for the fourth to sixth standard students. Later, he innovated Kindle, Blue Original, and above all Amazon, the biggest e-commerce company.

Against the backdrop of this announcement let’s delve into the area of charity made by such Noble business leaders for the welfare of mankind. The thought that goes behind such a huge magnanimity is the idea that any business grows in a social ecosystem which means that the business gets from society in every aspect of its growth and thus the noble humans make it their moral responsibility that they should also give back to the society which helped them to grow to such a high level that all the physiological needs become irrelevant for them. Though there are some laws also like one in India namely Corporate Social Responsibility, which call for the donation of some percentage of the corporate profits for the benefit and welfare of society. But some superhumans go beyond this call of duty and make huge and unimaginable donations towards the welfare of mankind.

Matching the league of Jeff Bezos is one name that many might have forgotten as he died long back in 1919 but none has matched the stature he carried in the field of charity. His name is Andrew Carnegie, the greatest philant of all time who donated his entire wealth to the tune of $ 298 bn. He was a Scottish-born American Industrialist. His donations were mostly towards educational foundations and Universities.

In this way, coming back to Maslow’s theory of need hierarchy, it's in the basics of human beings that when the needs of the lower level are fulfilled he rises above in the pyramid until he reaches the top of the need hierarchy which is self-actualization.

Man strives to achieve this self-actualization by various means and what better way can there be than to do something which also benefits the whole of mankind?

The step of Jeff Bezos is in that line of self-actualization and really deserves to be appreciated.