The Templeton Plan

by Sir John Templeton

  He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully…for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:6–7)

  Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back. (Luke 6:38)

  Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. (Mal. 3:10)

  Just as skeptics have downgraded the power of prayer as a key component in Templeton’s rise to success, there are those who see no relation between his success and his increasing giving. But giving, for Templeton, grows naturally from prayer. Material success, he feels, is much more likely to come to those willing to give some of their wealth away. He honors the letter and spirit of the biblical passages just quoted and is ready to attribute his success to the strength of those principles in his life. He believes literally in the Hindu proverb that says, “They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing.”

  Templeton invests his money not only in companies that will produce high-interest income but also in possible research projects in religion that resemble current research in the physical world of science. The term religious research might seem ambiguous, but John Templeton would define it as religion borrowing the tools of scientific investigation in order to understand itself. To serve as illustrations, here are a few of the various possibilities for research in religion:

  The ministerial longevity phenomenon: Records kept for 200 years by the Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund, one of the oldest life insurance companies in the world, show that Christian ministers live ten years longer than other men. Why? A research team of ministers, theologians, psychologists, and physicians might discover interesting information on this phenomenon.

  Healing as miracle: Several church denominations have collected thousands of well-documented cases of divine healing, but they have not yet been subjected to scientific studies by critically minded doctors, historians, and sociologists. Such studies might reveal how, why, when, and to whom divine healing occurs.

  The rise-up-and-walk problem: Some doctors agree that patients’ rate of healing, after having the same operation, varies as greatly as 300 percent among different people. In addition to studying the biological, anatomical, chemical, and psychological reasons for this, studies into the religious attitudes of patients might show a correlation between spiritual conviction and physical recovery.

  The joy-to-the-world question: Recent research has been conducted by psychologists on this question of why some people experience unexpected, intense rushes of joy while others do not. A theological consultant to these studies might be able to discover what spiritual factors contribute to the experience of joy. Are people who trust wholeheartedly in God generally more joyous than a control group of agnostics? Which groups of people describe themselves as happy most of the time? Which do not?

  Psychiatric health: Do people who become charismatic Christians through the experience of Pentecost need psychiatric help less than they did before? Maybe scientists could collect statistics on the frequency of visits to psychiatrists before and after the charismatic experience.

  God and the psychotic: Psychiatric teams that include pastoral theologians might embark on new studies of patients in mental institutions to correlate types of insanity or psychoses with previous religious convictions. Are there significantly larger or smaller percentages of mental patients who were healing practitioners, doctors, clergy, or scientists?

  The prodigal-sons-and-daughters problem: Do youthful offenders come from families in which religious worship is strong, average, or weak? Ministers and theologians should participate in these kinds of studies. It should be possible to collect statistics on young persons indicted for crimes to discover what proportion attended Sunday schools or were reared by parents who regularly attended church or synagogue or mosque.

  These are only a few examples of possible research projects in religion that institutes, academies, and seminaries might undertake.

  By investing in projects such as these, Templeton magnifies the joy and sense of meaning he receives from earning profits on his investments. That sense of joy and accomplishment causes him to work even harder and more creatively to make more money so that a large share of that money can go for worthy causes.

  The positive feeds on the positive. Giving leads to greater giving and becomes a way of life. Templeton gives and gains, and gives and gains even more. It is a cycle that continually feeds on itself in a positive way. And throughout this process, Templeton’s own sense of gratitude and spiritual accomplishment has grown as well.

  Thanksgiving inspires giving, not only in the person who is thankful but in the one who hears the thanksgiving. To Templeton, Thanksgiving is an important and neglected holiday, celebrated by only six of the world’s nations, among them the United States, Canada, and Brazil. For more than twenty-five years Templeton and his wife have mailed to their friends pictures of their family with inspirational messages of thanksgiving.

  Templeton has written: “Thanksgiving opens the door to spiritual progress.” Those who are full of thanksgiving are givers, and the successful are grateful givers.

  He says: “Each of us should cultivate a feeling of gratitude. Try to find opportunities each day to compliment the people you work with. To thank them for their contributions. Because they will do more, knowing they are appreciated.

  “Be grateful that the world is 90 percent blessings and only 10 percent problems and struggles. As the eminent physician and writer Lewis Thomas has said, there is mostly healthiness and very little sickness in our bodies, and we should never forget that. Existence is more good than bad, more honest than crooked, more contentment than sorrow.

  “We have everything to be grateful for, and when we’re grateful, we give.”

  Giving, Templeton is convinced, is a method where a person can grow and become truly a success.

  Feeling as he does about Thanksgiving, John Templeton praises his friend Peter Stewart, who organized Thanksgiving Square, a beautiful triangle of land in the heart of downtown Dallas. A tower has been erected on this land in the form of an upward spiral, and inside this spiral are illustrations and quotations from Thanksgivings since America’s first celebration of the holiday. People from the offices around Thanksgiving Square go there and pray during the business day.

  In a sense, John Templeton sees giving as a test of maturity. Those who are truly grown up give. The immature do not. It is wise, he feels, to practice giving in every area of life. Give thoughtful, well-reasoned advice. Give thanks. Give attention. Give prizes and honors. If you are lonely, give. If you are bored, give. Take on charity jobs. Help with fundraising.

  There is no greater gift you can give than to help another person become a giver. As a child, Templeton was taught always to give the larger piece of cake to the other person. At meetings, he believes in taking a backseat unless asked to come forward. The Bible teaches us that if anyone would be first among us, let him first become the servant of all.

  As evidence of spiritual progress, Americans are giving over $70 billion yearly to churches and charity. That is ten times as much charity as was given in the entire world in any year before this century.

  John Templeton and his wife Irene learned the meaning of the words “You can never outgive the Lord” when they founded the Templeton Prize in 1973. The prize program put them in touch with the wonderful new methods and thinking being done in every religion. They sought out and studied the great adventures at work in the world’s religious community, and they therefore derived more benefit from the program than anyone.

  It has been well said that “we give thee but thine own, whate’er our gifts may be. For all that we have, dear Lord, is but a trust from thee.”

  Below are listed John Te
mpleton’s favorite quotations on being a giver. They are sure steps along the road to success.

  Edwin Arlington Robinson, the American poet, wrote these lines: “There are two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.”

  Industrialist R. A. Hayward believed that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you want to receive a great deal, you first have to give a great deal. If each individual will give of himself to whomever he can, wherever he can, in any way that he can, in the long run he will be compensated in the exact proportion that he gives.”

  According to Henry Emerson Fosdick, religious leader and author of many best-selling books: “One of the most amazing things ever said on this earth is Jesus’ statement: ‘He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.’ Nobody has one chance in a billion of being thought really great after a century has passed except those who have been the servant of all. That strange realist from Bethlehem knew that.”

  Author Albert Pine believed that “what we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.”

  Clergyman and college president Paul D. Moody said: “The measure of a man is not the number of his servants but in the number of people whom he serves.”

  Andrew Cordier, then dean of the Columbia University School of International Affairs, feels that “it should be our purpose in life to see that each of us makes such a contribution as will enable us to say that we, individually and collectively, are a part of the answer to the world problem and not part of the problem itself.”

  Calvin Coolidge offered this aphorism on the subject of giving: “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”

  And the words of the mythical Paul Bunyan: “A man there was, and they called him mad; the more he gave, the more he had.”

  Last, according to clergyman and author J. Richard Sneed: “When we act upon the formula of ‘giving service,’ we seem to get what we want and we also get it from the other person. In the high art of serving others, workers sustain their morale, management keeps its customers, and the nation prospers. One of the indisputable lessons of life is that we cannot get or keep anything for ourselves alone unless we also get it for others.”

  John Templeton’s advice to those seeking the road to success is to give—to give wholeheartedly. To the giver all things will be returned.

  After completing Step 18, ask yourself these questions:

  Do I give money each year to charities?

  Do I tithe to a church?

  Do I believe that life without giving is a hollow existence?

  Is it my philosophy that what I am given—in terms of my abilities, my intelligence, and my material success—should be returned to the world in some form that will help others?

  By answering yes to these questions, you are already a giver and your life is enriched. Keep in mind that spiritual progress and material success are closely connected. Never be afraid to give. Serve others and you serve yourself.

  STEP 19

  WINNING THROUGH HUMILITY

  IN ORDER TO experience the emotions of humility and awe, emotions indispensable to the success-bound person, John Templeton often reflects on these words of Albert Einstein: “The most wonderful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

  Templeton wrote in his study of religion and science, The Humble Approach:

  We are perched on the frontiers of future knowledge. Even though we stand upon the enormous mountain of information collected over the last five centuries of scientific progress, we have only fleeting glimpses of the future. To a large extent, the future lies before us like a vast wilderness of unexplored reality. The God who created and sustains his evolving universe through eons of progress and development has not placed our generation at the tag end of the creative process. He has placed us at a new beginning. We are here for the future.

  Our role is crucial. As human beings we are endowed with mind and spirit. We can think, imagine, and dream. We can search for future trends through the rich diversity of human thought. God permits us in some ways to be co-creators with him in his continuing act of creation.

  Scientists have steadily been changing their concepts of the universe and laws of nature, but the progression is always away from smaller self-centered or man-centered concepts. Evidence is always accumulating that things seen are only one aspect of the vastly greater unseen realities. Man’s observational abilities are very limited, and so are his mental abilities. Should we not focus our lives on the unseen realities and not on the fleeting appearances? Should we not kneel down in humility and worship the awesome, infinite, omniscient, eternal Creator?

  In The Humble Approach, Templeton has called for research efforts to study and enhance spiritual progress. He feels that such efforts should be pursued with the same level of urgency that goes into research in scientific fields.

  But how do spiritual progress and a perception of God’s invisible universe help people in their lives and in their work? John Templeton answers by placing his hands, palms down, on a table. “Up until this century,” he says, “people would have said that this table is reality. But now natural scientists know that it is in fact 99 percent nothingness. What appears as reality to your eyes is just a configuration, a constantly changing vibration. What we conceive of as reality is really appearance.

  “The only reality is the Creator. He and his works are the only permanent things. I would put it this way: The things that are unseen are reality. The illusions, the temporary things, are what we see.”

  To be successful, each of us must build his own soul in imitation of the Creator. That means we must appreciate other people. We must always try to express our faith in all situations—at work, at home, with friends. Our spirit must be humble.

  The unseen—the beauty that exists as potential in all of us—is what makes us alive. If we don’t believe we’re alive, we will never find success. But if we are alive, we will understand that the only true reality is God; when we have reached that stage of maturity and moral development, we will be constantly productive and useful. We will become more outgoing. We will feel a surge of joy over the good fortune of others. The desire to do something of lasting benefit will be constantly at the forefront of our thoughts. We will be that much closer to being successful and happy people.

  To quote again from The Humble Approach:

  By learning humility, we find that the purpose of life on earth is vastly deeper than any human mind can grasp. Diligently, each child of God should seek to find and obey God’s purpose, but none be so egotistical as to think that he or she comprehends the infinite mind of God.

  Every person’s concept of God is too small. Through humility we can begin to get into true perspective the infinity of God. This is the humble approach. Are we ready to begin the formulation of a humble theology which can never become obsolete? This would be a theology really centered upon God and not upon our own little selves.

  But what are the practical applications of a sense of humility and an appreciation of God’s infinite powers? John Templeton believes there are many, not least of which is patience—patience in all things. The depth of his belief has given him a singular—and singularly successful—perspective on how to run a mutual funds business.

  He believes that if you apply the same methods of selection that other people are applying, you’ll get the same things they’re buying and you’ll have the same results. But Templeton tries to have the long-range viewpoint—the one that comes from a deep well of patience and self-belief. He will buy those things that others have not yet thought about. Then he waits until the short-term prospects become good and other people start coming in and buying the stock, thus pushing the price up.

/>   It is also important to note here that Templeton does not simply delegate research tasks to those who work for him and leave it at that. He could. He works as hard as anyone, and he’s much more successful than all but a few; it is accurate to say that his success has put him in a position to exercise his considerable powers to their fullest in any way that he might see fit. He has a task force of associates, officers, and other employees in his companies who contribute their talents to the formulation of portfolios. But he does a prodigious amount of personal research so that he can make an informed decision about what to do when a stock comes up for his consideration.

  John Templeton knows that his love of work, of his family, of his colleagues, and of life itself stems directly from his love of God. One of his favorite biblical quotations is 1 John 4:7–12:

  Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

  If you remain humble and steadfast in your love of God and man, you will have taken one of the most important steps on the road to success. Your humility will make you a winner.

  Step 18 taught us the meaning of humility through giving. Now in Step 19, we extend our search for humility by examining our relationship to God’s invisible universe.

  Before proceeding to Step 20, begin to practice the following mental exercises: