A few years ago, I explained to you in this post the reasons why I chose to live in the gift economy. I discussed questions related to my research, as well as essential concepts to better understand its dynamics.
After 13 years of practice, what have I learned? What happens when someone reaches out to me? The answer lies here.
If you reach out to me
People often ask me for conferences (check my YouTube channel). Leaders also call me (business, politics, public figures) to support them in their personal and professional journeys, or to build disruptive thinking. Invitations come my way to participate in high-impact innovations, both technological and human, that require crafting unconventional strategies. I also teach in universities, sometimes in France, more frequently abroad.
So, how will I respond if you reach out to me?
After asking for practical details (who, when, where, why…), I will quickly question you on the substance: what makes you get up in the morning, apart from the alarm, children, or a pressing urge? For what, or for whom, do you work? What purpose does the project serve for which you have contacted me?
I will say a big “yes” if, from my (perfectly subjective) point of view, your project makes sense. It serves the world, it serves others. I mean all others: humans as well as non-humans. A lecture on the evolution of our species or on free currencies? Guiding your company into the transformation economy? Bringing myth to life in your organization? Assisting you in your mandate as an elected official? Building a distributed and self-organized organization? Initiating a disruptive innovation strategy? Teaching at a university? Implementing free currencies? Setting up a training curriculum? Writing a show or a film script? It does not matter, as long as it serves life and others in a creative, exciting, and innovative perspective.
If you represent Coca-Cola, Total, or McDonald’s, chances are low that I will say yes to your project because it likely perpetuates the extractive economy that creates winners and losers. But we can always talk. Sometimes, I have witnessed small miracles with unlikely players willing to move forward. Everyone can move forward.
If the project makes sense, then I will give you my conditions:
1.We will operate within the economy of giving
2.We will work in an open source manner
Operating within the economy of giving
I offer you my work, my experience, my time. Therefore, you will owe me nothing, you will have no debt.
Because I chose to live this way, as part of my experimental life. Because it might serve other beings, human and non-human. And that delights me.
You can view me somewhat as an individual NGO.
Above all, I intend for us to have fun, to enjoy ourselves, to break the rules, to invent new paths, and to function in great mutual kindness. Even if it just involves a simple conference.
If, later, you feel gratitude, then you can continue the chain of giving.
How? By committing an act of kindness. Towards me if you wish to support my work and my research. Towards others, causes, associations, NGOs if that makes sense to you. You decide.
It could manifest as money, goods, services, skills to share, time to offer to others, a simple thank you… you choose. What makes you happy, what your heart says.
See it as a joyful act, as an expression of inner power and trust in life. Not as a debt, because you have no debt.
If you choose to give me money, then nothing simpler: I issue an invoice. According to the law, this remains a standard commercial transaction. And I pay my taxes like everyone else.
As for donations to NGOs and associations, you just have to rely on the legal framework that you probably know.
I do not consider transportation, accommodation, or meal costs as part of the gift. They belong to the normal operating expenses inherent to any project, so I ask you to cover them.
Working in open source
We will simply put our work in the public domain. A lecture? We film it and put it online. R&D? We do open innovation. You will see, this approach always generates unexpected fruits.
What has the economy of giving brought me?
Since I started living in the economy of giving, I have experienced many adventures, met extraordinary people, and participated in incredible projects. I have hundreds of stories to tell, both small and large; I could write a book. I have accompanied public figures as well as perfect strangers here and there around the world. Most of them count as my friends today. Some companies offered me money that allowed me to have a great life all these years; others chose to offer a good or a service listed in my desired riches. Others decided to offer their time, resources, and skills to people or NGOs that needed them. Sometimes, all of this at once.
I emphasize that the economy of giving does not involve a tit-for-tat or a “give-and-take” as I often hear. I repeat: you will have no debt towards me. There exists only an invitation to listen to your heart, to connect to the warm power of kindness.
Kindness, let’s talk about it.
It propels us far beyond all contracts and formalities that govern our current societies. Kindness requires commitment, risk-taking, impeccability, excellence, rigor, listening, empathy, focus.
All of our humanity, all of our potential resides in kindness. Without it, this great force, as invisible as omnipresent, the world would not turn.
I view the gift economy as a true Copernican revolution. It has transformed all my relationships with others, my relationship with the world, and my entire psychic universe. I live in a much kinder and gentler world than what the media narrative reports, and the common belief of a world of wild capitalism. In the economy of giving, people no longer negotiate, they converge. They no longer pull the blanket to themselves, they place it in the center. We move from a self-consciousness against others to a self-consciousness with others. In the classic economy, some win, and others lose; in the gift economy, everyone wins.
This also needs to include non-humans. I will not support any project that harms our animal brothers and sisters.
I have covered the practical aspects; I now conclude with the deeper and more spiritual aspects of my experience.
From causality to synchronicity
To address this subject, I will use a metaphor: the car and the paraglider. This metaphor resonates with me, as I obviously use the car, but I also travel long distances by paragliding (see my YouTube channel on the topic).
For me, operating within the market economy feels like moving by car. I have so many liters of fuel in my tank, which will allow me to drive a known distance, then refuel at a station, to start again and so on. Thus roads and routes emerge because everyone follows the same path. High chances exist that I will reach my destination in a predictable time-space. This offers a certain comfort, especially when one dislikes uncertainty.
The gift economy has propelled me into a completely different reality, better expressed by paragliding. Once I take off, I never really know when or where I will land. Will I make 5 kilometers because I didn’t find the right thermal? Or will I make 200? Sometimes I will take long detours compared to the road; other times, improbable shortcuts will present themselves, hopping from valley to valley, crossing mountain ranges. This represents a completely different dynamic. Paragliding takes me into unexpected, magnificent, epic, majestic spaces, sometimes gentle, sometimes dangerous. It also takes me into psychic and spiritual spaces that roads by car will never offer.
In paragliding, nature provides the energy to move. It gives me a gift. However, I never know what it has in store for me. Will it carry me far? Will I prove worthy of it? Will I listen enough to it and to myself to find myself in the right place at the right time?
The gift economy functions in the same way. It takes me into realities, meetings, situations that the classic market economy would never have made me experience. It requires deep listening, great humility. Like the wind, I never know what forces will spring from the hearts of my human and non-human brothers and sisters. What will they decide to give, to the world, to me, to others, to themselves? Trust needs to occur, availability must happen, complete self-offering must occur.
This has opened me to synchronicity.
Synchronicity happens when two events occur to you, both linked by meaning, without any causal connection between them. For example, you think about this person you haven’t seen in twenty years, and two minutes later you run into them on the street. Another example: you decided to leave a professional life that slowly killed you, and now you want to dedicate yourself to theater. Not financially reassuring, everyone says you are making a mistake. Yet, that morning, you meet a stranger on the train with whom the entire adventure will naturally unfold. These synchronous events have no causal link. But they have a meaningful link for you.
Practicing the gift economy has propelled me into a reality built on synchronicity. The mind told me that I would sleep under a bridge tonight? Well, no, an unexpected encounter offered me hospitality. My empty wallet said I couldn’t afford my next meal? A resource, a gift, always arrived at the last moment, exactly what I needed.
Step by step, I have learned not only to live in the gift economy but to fully realize myself in it. I dare not say “fly,” as it could cause confusion :).
This realization happens with others, on the powerful thermals of kindness.
This reality, built on synchronicities and not solely on causalities, has allowed me to cultivate a transrational consciousness – beyond the rational – a subject I will not develop here. I understand that, for many, this may sound like low-level mysticism. But worldwide, I have heard the same testimonies: those who dare to be, who dare to follow the thread of themselves, experience synchronicity. The universe does not seem to produce only absurdity and randomness.
To conclude…
For nothing in the world would I go back. Like with paragliding, it does not involve a quiet and certain path. Uncertainty, complexity, constantly invite a leap into the void, an absolute trust in life, which implies absolute trust towards the beings with whom I share part of my journey. I can only offer them the best of myself, to the extent of my abilities, and trust that the universe will take care of me in one way or another, which has always worked so far.
So, if you want us to travel this path together, let us do so in our creative power and kindness. Let us break the rules, have fun, and achieve great things!
To go further:
You can read the Vow of Wealth, visit the FAQ on the Economy of Giving, and watch these videos.
