Why my friend gave away £30 million

Published: Wed, 04/25/12




Last week I was humbled to witness my friend, John Elliott, give away his £30million business.

He could have sold it, he could have given it to his daughters (who work for the company alongside John's wife Margaret), he could have stripped the assets, moved manufacturing to China and made a fortune for himself. But he didn't. Instead he handed it all over to a Foundation with the promise that it would never sell the business, or move it from the local area and would re-invest the profits. He wanted to ensure that the 200+ local staff would continue to be employed, because that's one of his over-riding principles. And after a lot of thought he realised that giving it all away was the best way to achieve this.

It's not the first time John has done something like this. He was the first ever Secret Millionaire on Channel 4. When I was a fundraiser, John gave me my largest donation.

I'm not writing this to big-up John, he'd hate that. I know he receives these newsletters and I know he'd have a quiet word (and you don't want a quiet word from John). I'm writing this to ask what you would do... on principle?

- Would you give away your £30million business?

- Would you say 'no' to a contract if the client had different values to you?

- Would you challenge one of your friends over their behaviour and risk being ostracised by the group?

- Would you say 'no' to the quick fix and the easy way because you know there has to be a better way?

Every day we are challenged to make decisions based on our principles. For some it's easy, they take the chameleon approach and just change their principles to suit the situation. For others, their principles are as true as magnetic North. Everything may change around them, the temptation to change direction is incredibly strong but they won't be blown off track.

And if that describes you, then before your pat on the back please take a moment to check what your over-riding principles are. Did the Titanic sink because of the Captain's ego? When Gerald Ratner chased a cheap laugh it cost his company £500million. Greed and catastrophic risk-taking caused the closure of Lehman Bros (and plenty of others) and had a massive effect on thousands of lives as a result.

When you make values-based decisions and you're true to your principles you make better choices - end of.
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