In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop talks with Jim Langley, President of Langley Innovations, about the transformative power of personal experiences in philanthropy. They discuss the critical role of empathy, the long-term impact of thoughtful giving, and how overcoming personal challenges can inspire a life dedicated to helping others.
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Jim Langley is the President of Langley Innovations, a strategic consulting and training firm highly regarded in the philanthropic sector. He founded the company 14 years ago after a three-decade-long career in higher education, where he pioneered fundraising campaigns at three major universities. These campaigns and his innovative engagement practices have influenced hundreds of colleges and universities globally. Jim has authored five books and penned over 1,000 blog posts, sharing insights from extensive behavioral research into donor behavior. This research has been foundational in shaping strategies that numerous institutions across North America have adopted to enhance their philanthropic efforts.
Episode Summary:
How do deeply personal experiences influence one’s approach to philanthropy, and what impact can they have? In a world often driven by metrics and outcomes, understanding the human element behind giving can offer a profound perspective on the motivations that fuel generosity and community building.
According to Jim Langley, a seasoned philanthropic strategist with a rich history in enhancing the culture of giving, personal challenges and empathetic listening are fundamental in shaping how individuals engage with philanthropy. He shares that overcoming personal adversities not only deepens one’s understanding of others’ pains but also enriches the giver’s sense of purpose. These experiences transform personal narratives into powerful catalysts for philanthropic actions, highlighting how personal growth and societal contributions can be intricately linked.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Jim Dunlop on LinkedIn
- Advent Partners
- Jim Langley: LinkedIn | Email
- Langley Innovations: Website | LinkedIn
- “The Profound Impact of Strategic and Personal Philanthropy With Ron Cohen” on You Can’t Take it With You
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey.
Our seasoned team is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.
Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.
To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.
Episode Transcript:
Intro 0:00
Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.
Jim Dunlop 0:16
H,i Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of this show where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Jim Langley of Langley Innovations. But before we get to Jim, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners. Get ready for good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. Whether you’re planning for the future investing for growth or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success visit readyforgood.com. Before introducing today’s guest, I want to give a big thank you to Ron Cohen in Ashland, Oregon. I first met Jim Langley about seven years ago when Ron briefly introduced us when he and Jim were both passing through my hometown of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ron Cohen was one of our very first guests on the show. Take a listen to that episode if you haven’t yet. I’m glad he’s reconnected me to Jim for today’s conversation. So Jim Langley, President of Langley Innovations started his own philanthropic consulting firm 14 years ago, after a 30-year advancement career in higher education. Jim ran three pathbreaking campaigns at three major universities and pioneered in fundraising and engagement practices that have been emulated by hundreds of colleges and universities around the world and has written five books and over 1000 blog posts. Jim, welcome.
Jim Langley 1:55
Thank you so much, Jim.
Jim Dunlop 1:56
I am glad that you are here. And I’m hoping maybe you can start off by sharing a little bit more about you and take a few minutes and just explain to our listeners who Jim Langley is, a little bit of a biography of yourself.
Jim Langley 2:11
Thank you, Jim. I just rerouted myself. I was traveling to upstate New York, and I decided to go by the home where my family lived when I was born. It’s in Johnstown, New York. It’s a bit of a depressed town these days. But I pulled up to the house. I hadn’t been there in years and years and years on East Clinton Street and marveled at the fact that there were five children and two parents in that small little house. And I was born there. And I looked at my birth certificate while I was there, my father was a guard at General Electric at GE Schenectady. And I was just reflecting on that journey of where I started, how humble those beginnings were, and what a wonderful life I have had, how much I’ve been able to see. And so much of that has been because of my career, and getting into this field called fundraising, which I had trepidation about. But now I realized that allowed me to meet and interact with the best of human nature, I feel that what my career was so valuable in providing was this ability to work with people who wanted to make a difference with their lives, who called themselves to certain purposes, who said, Whatever my lessons in life are, whether I feel lucky, or whether I have had painful lessons, I want to do something about them, I want to express myself through philanthropy, and either help improve the lives of others or share my good fortune. And without that career, Jim, I don’t know that I would have met as many remarkable people been as inspired as I have been over and over again and grown as much as I have by virtue of interacting with them.
Jim Dunlop 4:00
Well, thank you for sharing that. And certainly very humble origins. And I appreciate the fact that you could, after all these years, go back and find your family home and reflect on where you’ve been. So thinking a little bit about that, and going a little step further, you’ve spent most if not all of your professional life, on the topic of generosity and philanthropy. And I know a lot of people follow your thought leadership. And, and a lot of people that I know, and respect are interested in what you have to say. So if we could, could you share maybe your own generosity origin story, to make a career and a life on this in this area? What, what really drove you to get to that and what’s your what’s your origin story, Jim?
Jim Langley 4:52
Yes, I’ll try Jim. I don’t know that I have the perfect answer, but I have been reflecting on this. I attributed a lot to my mother who was a very generous soul in general. So I looked at the world very benevolently, looked at all people with great benevolence, who was not one to see distinction between people. And even as a boy, she would sort of remind me that, you know, we needed to know where people came from, how much they had struggled, she interpreted the world, for me in very benevolent ways. And I think that was critical. I also think seeing at a young age, the disparity in our societies disparity in wealth disparity and opportunity, disparity and living styles. I think that that made a great impression on me. And of course, given my age, I should say that one of the most transformative occurrences was moving from upstate New York at about the age of about age five, to Roanoke, Virginia, and my father was transferred. And at the time, there were still segregated facilities, I had never seen a colored person. And indeed, as a boy, when I heard the phrase, color person, which was the dominant phrase at the time, I kept looking for red, green, blue, yellow people, right, I thought, Oh, this is going to be interesting. But then we saw what black people look like. And we saw the conditions in which they lived. And keep in mind from that moment, to the time I graduated from high school is this unfolding of the civil rights movement, it’s all around me. It’s so shaping in the schools I go to, you know, there are black people that are voicing their hopes and their frustrations. You know, Martin Luther King emerges, but the world is in turmoil and the status quo is being turned over many times. And just being surrounded by that I think just made me so much more socially aware, as I said, of disparities, and then maybe planted the seeds that were more fortunate than we realize. And that whatever fortune we have, there’s great joy in sharing it. So when I was in the army at the tender age of 20, making $350 a month, and they passed around the United Way form I gave 10%. And I remember my roommate being like, startled like, what are you doing? He saw my form…What are you doing? I said, I won’t miss that. 35 It was just instinctive. I won’t miss that $35 a month. And so there was some seed that had been planted that said, you know, we’re in this together, and let’s help each other out. Then as time goes on, Jim, you learn to be not just generous, but discerning. What is your life teaching you? What values have been imprinted on you? And how do you use generosity to create a better world for others and for yourself, I have to tell you, I’m a student of history. And I learned from everybody, and I want to quote a person who was 21 years of age, who said that what we do in terms of civic engagement and philanthropic engagement is tried to improve our communities as we improve ourselves. And that 21-year-old was a precocious Benjamin Franklin way back in like 1730, something or 40 something right, but 21 years of age, and he said to have created the first civic or nonprofit organization. So you study the origins of this. And I believe that when we realize how much we will improve, through our giving of time, talent, and treasure, how much better we will be how much more we’ll learn about ourselves. How much more content and fulfilled will be with our lives, then you get kind of addicted to this thing called generosity.
Jim Dunlop 9:01
I really appreciate that. And I like the way that you instinctively almost as they passed around that form in the army, just filled it out. And that’s a great part of your story that led you to a career where you got a front row seat to a lot of people’s generosity. Jim is there is there a story that comes to mind that that or maybe stories that you’ve witnessed over the years that were somebody wanted to take action and be generous and found a creative way to match some passion with some opportunities to help somebody?
Jim Langley 9:39
Oh, so many Jim I’ve seen so many, and I’ve seen such remarkable acts of generosity people living very unassuming lives very quiet, very modest lives that The Millionaire Next Door they’re living well below their means, but you see, they’re using the difference between their lifestyle and what they’re saving to invest certain causes and purposes that they think are important. And I’ve witnessed this so many times. I think one of the powerful lessons I learned is how personal, significant giving is, and therefore how important it is for us to listen to people about their story, which is exactly what you’re doing. When we understand their story and where they came from. We can meet them. But one of the most powerful stories I saw was incredibly moving, had to do with a very large honorific gift, given in the name of a successful businessman and politician. He was the former mayor of Atlanta; his name was Ivan Allen. And he was critical during the Civil Rights period, he was white, but very much a stabilizing influence. He coined the phrase of Atlanta being the city too busy to hate, and showed real courage in you know, facing up to difficult situations, and causing this change to come about in a very constructive, non-confrontational way by again, stressing what it was that we had in common. He was also a highly successful businessman. So he’s held in huge regard. And so Georgia Tech decided to name the business school for him. And we set about raising money, the person who gave the largest gift by far and away, and today would probably be worth 20 some million dollars. wasn’t somebody just impressed with Ivan Allen, but somebody who had been deeply influenced by him when this gentleman, the donor, was a freshman at Georgia Tech, and his story was beautiful. He came from a rural, poor background, when he came to Georgia Tech, he was natively smart in math. But he had one change of clothes, he had a very rural accent. And he soon felt out of place, he realized how different he was, how poor he was, that he couldn’t engage is as easily as many other people and various social activities. And so he starts to isolate himself, he starts to stay in his room, he starts to even think about falling out. And Ivan Allen, the future mayor, the future great businessman already, is a rare human being. So he’s big man on campus, but he’s not full of himself. He’s got great empathy. And he notices this man, I’ll call him, Charlie. And he starts to befriend him and sort of pull him out of that cocoon. And then Ivan Allen goes to the Dean of Students. He says Charlie’s got nothing. I mean, he’s got no spending money. He’s got no change of clothes. The dean uses an emergency fund to buy him some clothes, they get him a part time job on campus, you know, and Charlie starts to Charlie remains shy all his life. But Charlie starts to feel like I belong, I can make it here. And then he goes on to an incredible career. In mass communications, there’s a much more dramatic story that I can’t quite tell the end to without revealing who Charlie was. But, you know, this was a massive communication empire that we now know a great deal about. And so when we approached Charlie, on behalf of Ivan Allen, with a powerful volunteer, the volunteer, great man, says to Charlie, Charlie, can you get behind this initiative for Ivan Allen? And Charlie says, Based on my experience, just tell me the number. And the volunteer says, at the time, you know, it’s, I’m trying to relate it to present value, but at the time, it was $10 million. And, you know, very significant sum, but do a present value calculation, because this will go back to 1980 something.
Jim Dunlop 13:54
Okay. That’s a great deal.
Jim Langley 13:56
Charlie takes out a check and writes it, batting an eye, just give me the number. So you see, people say, Why did that man give? Because of Ivan Allen’s impressive career? Because he never forgot the good deed that was done for him. And just waited for that, and sure tried to pay that good deed back many times, but reflexively, just tell me what you need. And it’ll be done.
Jim Dunlop 14:26
It’s, it’s, it’s gratifying to hear this story. And I’ll make this observation. I think this is our 12th episode of the podcast. And one of the themes that has quietly emerged in a lot of these stories are these ripple effects. And you know, the thing that Ivan Allen did as a 21-year-old student at Georgia Tech by making sure that another classmate felt included and belonging resulted in this tremendous effort years later, and that was obviously, Ivan Allen that was part of it sounds like that was part of his personality, part of who he was that spirit of generosity, but never was, that was not a calculating behavior. It wasn’t, you know, if I’m nice to this guy today, he’ll write a check for $20,000,000. 30 – 40 years from now, it was nothing like that was just, I’m going to be a good human being today, I’m going to be a generous spirit, and, and show kindness to my fellow human being. And the return on that investment to society is incredible.
Jim Langley 15:31
And that’s it. And that’s what we don’t calculate Jim often enough, is that ripple effect over 20 or 30 years, right? So when you’re giving you drop a pebble in a pond by giving a gift to a credible institution, you have no idea what that ripple effect will be. Just back to Ben Franklin for a second. Ben Franklin leaves an estate of 2000 pounds sterling, this is before the dollar, 1000 pounds to make the Schuylkill River more navigable, 1000 pounds to help young tradesmen start their own business. So he is very entrepreneurial. But he stipulates that the restrictions on his giving can be lifted after the first 100 years, the second 100 years and the third 100 years. So the investment in young tradesmen gets translated into a scholarship. And you look at the history of that the University of Pennsylvania and Ben Franklin Institute benefited to the tune of millions of dollars over the centuries from 1000 pounds sterling set aside in 1798.
Jim Dunlop 16:38
So we still have we still have a good number of years to get into that third century. Right.
Jim Langley 16:44
Right. But just think that foresight, again, he had this tremendous foresight, about the linkage of democracy, strong economy and philanthropy, how those all came together, creating a stronger economy creates a stronger democracy and philanthropy is this participative act in which we make both of those stronger to our collective benefit.
Jim Dunlop 17:09
And, Jim, if somebody’s following your thought leadership, I know you have a lot on LinkedIn that I like to read and take note of one of the themes, and I think there’s, there’s this this I’ll call attention that unfortunately too much in the fundraising world, we’ve gotten too transactional and not relational and obviously, the stories you’ve shared really go back to deep, long held relationships. Could you maybe share a little bit more on that that tension? And maybe with some thoughts around how we can behave better when it comes to generosity and try to be less transactional? I guess is probably the way I’m asking.
Jim Langley 17:54
You know, thank you, Jim. That is my passion at this stage in life. That is my cause it’s helping more organizations realizing that in fact, they’re sub optimizing philanthropic, potential by being so short term in their thinking, maybe even the immediate desperate transactional, you know, we need this money to balance the budget, or we want to raise more money this year than last year. Well, what we’ve seen across the globe, but in the United States of America, in particular, is a loss of about 1/3 of giving households in the last 30 years. People are being less generous, it’s probably they’re going off the institutional grid, they’re giving interpersonally they’re doing something that’s quieter, maybe with small organizations, and they’re not taking tax credits for it. But giving to institutions has declined significantly. And attrition rates. In other words, those who have given previously falling away, those have increased and they’ve increased with the advent and the ubiquity of things like Giving Day and so I don’t mean to be Scrooge like, you know, if you pick on something like Giving Day, a great thought, but the simple problem is it’s become so frothy, it’s about the day that we’re seeing the highest rates of attrition ever. We’re seeing most of the people who give for the first time and in the name of Giving Day fall away. We’re seeing most organizations lose four out of five first time donors, why? Because when you give nothing happens, you just get a thank you. Why do you give? My research over many years and aggregating the research of others says people give for three powerful reasons: to believe, they want to give in something they believe in, that’s a purpose greater than themselves. To belong. So when we give, we want to belong to kindred spirits, we want to work in unison toward common ends with people who see the world and see purpose like us, right. And the last one is to better is to take whatever margin I have in my life and to make something better for those that follow. So if you look at American history, there is this great sense of forward progress. And you know, without explicit articulation, each generation saying it wants to bequeath more to the future than it inherited from the past. This has fueled American progress, and this does improve lifestyle. So what we see is as organizations became complacent, or just assumed this natural resource core called philanthropy would always be there, they just focused on harvesting and getting it. And then they became kind of obsessed with competition with each other, and annual goals, and they lost sight of belief, belong, better. So I say, you know, you can’t pass the offering basket, if you don’t build the congregation. Now you just take a look at American higher education. 90% of support, given annual for all institutions of higher learning comes from 1% of doubt. You’re getting more money, you’re losing community. That’s a dangerous proposition. The democratization of an organization is a dangerous proposition reliance on fuel no matter how benevolent they are, is a dangerous proposition. So you liken that to a church, and you say, okay, beautifully appointed church being kept alive by five to 10, donors, fewer and fewer middle-aged people in the middle pews. And next to no young people coming in, the church may survive. But what will happen to the faith, the purpose, right, you’ve lost sight. So we’ve got to get back to We The People in community, defining common cause, and working toward commonly shared values, working from commonly shared values toward common purpose, this is great fuel for any community, any society, any country, any culture. And that’s what I’m trying to do, then I try to array the data to say you see this thinning church. Now here’s what we can do to get back into more community building exercises and feed the need to believe, belong, and better.
Jim Dunlop 22:22
I really liked that. And I think if our listeners hear one thing today, hopefully they heard a lot, but is this idea of, we give to something we believe in something or some community that we want to belong to, and something that we want to make better than ourselves. And, and it sounds like too much of modern-day philanthropy has lost sight of those three things.
Jim Langley 22:50
Exactly. It’s about balancing budgets or fundraising results to get a kind of a feather in your cap or to get a competitive advantage. Nothing the matter with those, but don’t lose sight of those core purposes.
Jim Dunlop 23:04
So you’ve had a long professional journey, a front row seat to a lot of generosity, what’s what are some things that you’ve learned a lot? And you’re sharing a lot? What are what’s a pitfall or mistake that you saw as when you were part of an organization that helped, you know, maybe build an understanding of some of these concepts for you, Jim?
Jim Langley 23:28
Yeah, I think the most important thing is when we think about what an organization should do is one listen, to understand donor intent and to treat that as a sacred commitment. In other words, if you understand people have invested in you, of something that’s far greater than money itself, but a set of values and a set of hopes. And if you keep faith with those values and hopes, you won’t have trouble raising money, but then you see if you somehow just take certain things for granted, and you start focusing on fundraising technique, and you just start looking at dollars and not the people and not the hopes and the values behind them, gaps can start to grow. So when you come in and analyze organizations, one of the things that you do is provide a listening function, you go listen to their donors, and you say, this is what you want from donors. This is what your donors want from you. And folks, this gap is growing. So you got a choice. Right? You can spend more money and preach louder and expend a greater portion of your budget on glitzy material. That’s not going to bring you closer. Only one thing will bring you closer is listening and synthesizing those ideas into a community of shared purpose. So that’s my favorite phrase is your objective is to create a stronger community of shared purpose, money is the means. Money is not the objective.
Jim Dunlop 25:02
Again, I that’s this idea of community as a shared purpose I liked, I really liked that. And that resonates well with me.
Jim Langley 25:12
Jim, if I could add, it resonates with people around the world. So I started off thinking everything I thought was uniquely American. And I started publishing and writing. And I’ve seen this resonance around the world, wherever there’s democracy, there’s a similar kind of thinking. And there is this desire for meaning and community, and philanthropy as the means to do that. So these are very commonly held values.
Jim Dunlop 25:35
Jim, what’s a big challenge you’ve had to come overcome professionally or personally in your journey. Through the world of philanthropy over the years?
Jim Langley 25:45
Well, I did have a journey to overcome. And I’m open to sharing it with people. And it’s, it’s deepened me, and it’s helped me understand where I came from. But I did come from a very troubled background, both of my parents when I was in my late 30s, committed suicide about a year apart. So you know, they were troubled people, and they came from troubled people. And so what I had to learn throughout my life was the effect that that multigenerational struggle had on me. And I first thought, when I succeeded, I had overcome that when I started to achieve professional success, that I had overcome that. And I didn’t realize how much I was still carrying within me a kind of a woundedness. And, you know, there are different kinds of woundedness, physical wounds and psychological, mental, emotional woundedness. And so I could be very prickly about things, I could be very sensitive about things. I took things personally, very personally, Jim. So to your point of view, the thing that I had to work on, and continue to work on, is not taking things personally. And when I run into difficulty, when I run into somebody with edges, when somebody says something I find unfortunate, I have to then say, where did they come from? And what’s their story, and chances are, they’re treating me like they were treated. And then I start to see I have so much more in common with people who at one point in my life, I would have been frustrated or irritated by. And then I was so goal oriented, you know, because success was so important. You people say, Oh, you’re driven in some ways you’re haunted, you’re trying to create security from a very insecure world that you came from. I went to a Management Institute about mid-career, and they tested goal orientation. And I was, I mean, you give me the ball, and I’m going to crawl over the goal line with 10 people on top of me, right. But they said, this was, you know, I was in a darkened room. And so they were saying, Okay, now if you’re on the far end, I was on the far end of the scale, you have to be careful, because you tend to resent anyone or anything that gets in the way. And I’m in this darkened room, and I’m embarrassed, my face is flushed, I’ve said, and suddenly a mirror has been held up to me. It’s good to be task oriented. It’s good to be goal driven. But I was taking every obstacle as you’re doing this to me, You’re holding me back, you’re getting in my way. So that’s been my great challenges is to become a better coach. Jim. Yeah, remember where this came from? Remember who you are. I’ve got this benevolent coach now in my head, who whose says, We know where you began. And don’t fall back into those feelings keep moving toward true benevolence, which is, you know, in Christian terms, loving your neighbor. And the most important neighbor to love is the one that’s the least like you, not the most.
Jim Dunlop 28:51
Jim, I really appreciate you sharing that. And I wasn’t expecting that story. And I really appreciate it. And one of the things if I can make this observation, I’m a parent of two teenagers, 17 and 14. And one of the things that I think is so important to my wife and I is trying to teach my children empathy, and modeling it for and whatever you would say about where you came from, the gift you have today, it sounds like is a tremendous amount of empathy as a result of that journey. And I have to think that that has made you very effective in your work and very effective at helping people connect to their own generosity, and it probably wasn’t the gift you were anticipating early on or expecting but that’s hopefully an incredible positive outcome of that journey.
Jim Langley 29:44
There is no doubt there is no doubt and you reach the stage in life where you look at the pain and you see it as an education and a deepening, one of my favorite quotes comes from John O’Donohue, a very sort of soulful writer he’s not with us anymore, but he says when you deaden your depths, deaden your depths, you fail to resonate with people or the work you do. So how do you undeaden or make yourself deeper is to get out of yourself and start to try to identify with people and start to see yourself in them. How more, much more similar you are, in some cases, no matter what’s happened to you, that you’re even luckier and therefore, you know, can you be generous to them?
Jim Dunlop 30:31
Jim, as we as we start to wrap up, first of all, I want to thank you. And real quick before I get to my last one or two questions, were there any? Were there any other stories or any other things that would be really helpful for our listeners to hear today?
Jim Langley 30:47
Yeah, I would say it goes back to this empathetic listening, Jim. The theme of my life is that I started off as a reporter, and I was analytical. Then as time went on, I started listening. And then I started seeing this resonance with other people and similarities. And that everything I did in my life that people now find worthwhile, was rooted in empathetic listening, and what I gleaned from that, and then shared with people, they found extraordinarily helpful in their lives in their careers, that I love the word interview, it comes from the old French, to say, two means to see one another. But to see the soul of one another is the most beautiful thing. So interview is again, not just the asking of questions, but it’s the attempt to see yourself and the other and vice versa, and to see more oneness than disparity. And when we do that, so much of life, everything we do in life becomes more productive and joyous.
Jim Dunlop 31:50
So Jim, what’s one thing that say that you’re looking forward to, or that’s exciting about either your work or your life right now that’s coming up, that you would want to share with our listeners?
Jim Langley 32:02
Well, I’ve accepted the role that I’m an elder. And I define that the difference between being just getting older and being an elder is to commit yourself to younger generations to hold the ladder for those that are following. And as I explicitly commit myself do that to that and reach out to young people and offer whatever it is that I have, I find greater joy than ever before. It gives me hope to see so many dedicated principle young people coming along, wanting to do good with their lives. And so you’ll go back to Jim, what you said, the ripple effect, I now realize that with whatever years I have remaining, the great ripple effect will be the younger people that I provide assistance to guidance to and hope to. My favorite definition of leadership is six words, absorb chaos, project, calm, good, give help. That’s my mantra. And I’m trying to model that for young people so that they can reach that same state, that same stature and that same feeling in life that I know I am here, and I know the good that I can do. And I know that I’ll make a difference.
Jim Dunlop 33:22
I like it. Thank you so much, Jim, for sharing that. I do have one final question. Before I ask it, I want to point our listeners to your website, which is Langley innovations.com. Or you can join the conversation along with 17,000 other people on LinkedIn by looking for Langley Innovations, and Jim Langley on LinkedIn. So our final question is, you know, if I paid for a billboard outside of Frederick, where 1000s of people drove by every day, and you could share one piece of advice or wisdom on that billboard, what would it be Jim?
Jim Langley 33:59
Be what’s missing. And it needs a little bit of an identification, so if you look around and think something’s missing, this town isn’t, my life isn’t, my relationship isn’t, or people aren’t this way to me, be the thing that you think is missing. If you think generosity or kindness or wisdom or…don’t fault others for not providing it to you, start giving it to others and watch how your point of view changes. If you join a team, try to figure out the unique role you can play that no one else is. Don’t say I don’t feel comfortable here. Bring what you think is missing, be the missing piece in any equation that you, human equation, you encounter. And watch how the meaning of your life starts to come together. Be what’s missing.
Jim Dunlop 34:48
Be what’s missing. I love it a great, it could that could be a wonderful billboard and certainly a wonderful message. So we’ve been talking with Jim Langley truly a thought leader on all things generosity. Again, you can find jim@langleyinnovations.com. Jim, thank you so much for joining us.
Jim Langley 35:05
Thank you so much for what you’re doing, Jim.
Outro 35:09
Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode, and to subscribe to future shows.
Disclosure 35:27
Advent Partners may utilize third-party websites, including social media websites, blogs, and other interactive content. We consider all interactions with clients, prospective clients, and the general public on these sites to be advertisements under the securities regulations. As such, we generally retain copies of information that we or third parties may contribute to such sites. This information is subject to review and inspection by Thrivent Advisor Network or the securities regulators. Advisory Persons of Thrivent provide advisory services under a “doing business as” name or may have their own legal business entities. However, advisory services are engaged exclusively through Thrivent Advisor Network, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Advent Partners and Thrivent Advisor Network, LLC are not affiliated companies.
