Chuck Feeney has achieved his goal of giving away his entire eight billion dollar fortune while he is still alive to see the impact it has made. Feeney has spent the past 38 years making endowments to charities and universities around the world, with the goal of “striving for zero… to give it all away”. The 89 year old American’s wealth came from the duty-free shopping empire that he created. From his small rented apartment in San Francisco, Feeney had a message for other members of the super-rich. “How many yachts or pairs of shoes do you need? Why just accumulate all of this wealth, when so many people have such tremendous needs. Wealth brings the responsibility to improve the lives of our fellow humans.”  



Some billionaires have pledged to give away part of their fortunes after they have died, but Feeney says that it is better to be involved in the projects you are supporting. “To those wondering what it’s like to give while you are still living I say: try it, you’ll like it.” He encourages the ultra-rich like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Elon Musk of Tesla/SpaceX, and others to “pick a global problem that interests you, then invest your wealth and get involved personally”.