Why Duty Free founder Chuck Feeney decided to end his life as a beggar

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

You probably haven't heard of Chake Feeney, a billionaire, one of the richest people in the world. But you probably know what Duty Free is. The founder of this company is Fini. Despite the fact that he amassed a fabulous fortune, this was never his main goal. The American businessman decided to spend all his fortune on charity. The amazing story of a wealthy philanthropist who went bankrupt in order to change the lives of people who don't even know his name. Chuck Feeney's biography is just as amazing and similar to the American dream come true. Charles Francis Feeney was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on April 23, 1931. It was during the Great Depression, and his parents were struggling to keep the family afloat. His mother, Madeleine Feeney, always tried to help others. She worked as a volunteer nurse for the Red Cross. Chuck also began to help his parents. He hired his neighbors as au pair to make it easier for the family. Later, together with a friend, he cleared snow to earn a few dollars. So they managed to support their families during this difficult period.

After graduating from high school, Chuck Feeney decided to go to the United States Air Force, where he began to serve as a radio operator. At that time, a soldier who went into military service had the right to receive a free higher education after it. So he entered the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. Chuck was the first of his family to go to college. It was here that the future billionaire began looking for business opportunities to make some money. Once Feeney saw a guy selling sandwiches, bought one and said to himself: "I can do this … It's not difficult …". So Chuck became a sandwich seller. At Feeney University he met Harvey Dale. He was a law student. They subsequently became best friends.

After graduating from Cornell University, Chuck left for France to continue his studies. He always wanted to work for himself and not for someone else. In 1956, there were about fifty American warships off the Mediterranean coast in France. All sailors were allowed to buy alcoholic drinks, which were not taxed. For Feeney, this was the perfect business. He wasted no time. At first, Chuck had nothing: no office, no start-up capital. The idea was really amazing. The business started. Chuck bought liquor at five dollars a bottle and sold at fifteen, making more than 100% of the profit after all expenses were removed. In November 1960, Feeney and his friend Robert Miller formally founded their company. DFS - Duty Free Shoppers Group. Chuck then said to himself, "If it is good for the soldiers, it will probably be good for the tourists as well." So he began to sell alcohol to them. Then he decided that it was possible to expand the range and began to sell more perfumes.

Many sailors showed interest in buying cars. Chuck began to receive so many requests that he decided to do this as well. So in 1964 he got into the automotive business. Everything worked so well that no one expected any problems. The sales were great, friends were getting a lot of money from them, but there was no cost control. Thunder struck when the chief accountant suddenly realized that liabilities were one and a half million more than the assets of the DFS. In addition, the company paid very high taxes and, despite the huge income, the business did not actually make money. Feeney's company had two options - to honestly declare itself bankrupt or continue outlawed. The partners decided to choose the first one. Despite this collapse, they decided to start over.

This is how a new business began - duty-free shopping at airports. It all started with Honolulu Airport in Hawaii. Business quickly took off. The company expanded, the owners began to earn $ 10 million a year. Their stores opened all over the world. This is how one of the largest business empires was born.

Chuck became fabulously rich, his fortune was estimated in billions. Everything was amazing. But he soon began to notice that great wealth has some very unpleasant side effects. His family members had no incentive to develop. Feeney's children were bored, they had no desire to achieve anything in life, because they already had everything. Chuck did everything to teach his children to look for opportunities, to lead an active life, but wealth became a big obstacle in this. This was probably the main reason he started giving out his money to other people.

So in 1982 Feeney founded The Atlantic Philanthropies. He set aside some money for each member of his family and donated all of his remaining fortune to the foundation. Since its inception, Atlantic Philanthropies has donated over $ 6 billion to charities. Chuck and his organization have changed the lives of so many people! Feeney himself always remained in the shadows, popularity and fame never interested him. Decades later, the businessman achieved his goal - he became bankrupt, having spent all his fortune on charity.

In his historical homeland, Ireland, Feeney is considered a saint. In terms of its importance, it is little inferior to the famous Saint Patrick. The billionaire has allocated more than $ 1 billion to Ireland. Thanks to these funds, the country managed to make a significant leap in its economic development. Feeney has always made the main condition for receiving financial aid that companies compete honestly on a competitive basis. Many other charities have now adopted this method.

In addition to the fact that the Chuck Feeney Foundation helped low-income families, they invested in promising companies. For example, Feeney once helped the development of Facebook. The billionaire and philanthropist admits that he sometimes had to cheat in order to increase his profits. For example, he often registered his business with other people in order to minimize taxes. Perhaps it was thanks to this that he managed to put together such an impressive fortune. Despite his wealth and almost unlimited possibilities, Charles Feeney never flew business class. You will not see him in an expensive restaurant, he prefers inexpensive cafes. The billionaire lives in one of the apartments owned by a charitable foundation. Feeney doesn't even have a personal car. Although it is worth noting that the relatives of the billionaire still do not limit themselves in anything. The wife and children live in luxurious mansions.

Feeney constantly turns to rich people all over the world and urges them not to wait for old age, but to help now all those in need. “Sharing and helping the poor and the sick is much more enjoyable in life,” he says. Now Chuck is almost ninety and he regrets only about one thing: the many projects that he planned will be completed very soon. In the meantime, Feeney is actively promoting his philosophy of life. His charitable foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, has poured over $ 6 billion into science, education, health care, civil rights and nursing homes in the United States, Australia, Vietnam, South Africa, Bermuda and Ireland. “Giving is much more fun now than it was when you died,” says Feeney.

Read about another eccentric millionaire in our article. how the search for the treasure chest, which the millionaire hid in the Rocky Mountains, ended.