Destination Freedom: The Way to True Affluence

By Timothy David Karsten, founder of TDKA Group
Excerpt © 2012  All Rights Reserved

Freedom may be elusive, but it has inspired a passion in people so intense that peaceful men have revolted and gone to war in order to obtain or protect it, rightfully measuring a government\’s greatness by the freedoms it allows its people. The yearning for political freedom is deeply connected to the age-old yearning for spiritual freedom that religion has traditionally attempted to midwife, as well as to the more recent striving to safeguard individual freedom and right to personal love. Great novels, poems, and symphonies stand as testimonies to the manifold ways in which we have pursued our age-old love affair with freedom.

Translating freedom into the present tense of our day-to-day lives is a challenge we all share, whatever our era or circumstances. Our present tense happens to be caught up in a global economic revolution, with vast corporations, consortiums, and transfers of wealth on the move. Whether we are the ones making the corporate decisions that impact the ebb and flow of money or the ones who are forced to look for work in a shifting labor market, the movement of money in and out of nations and economic sectors has taken center stage in both national and individual lives. How can we possibly seek freedom at the same time we seek Mammon? What have they to do with each other?

It is tempting to view our fate as awash in forces beyond our control and freedom as a pipe dream. The headlines alone make thoughts of human freedom sound like childish wishful thinking. Slowly, disdain for the human condition of unchanging war, famine, greed, etc. creeps in and we begin to distance ourselves from our fellow creatures. But the bars of our prison are not complete until we relegate everything and everyone to the status of “things” that are either of use or must be gotten around, and allow our hectic, money-driven era to suck out the marrow of our time, time that could have gone toward living freedom\’s fullness.

To this self-imposed prison, the financially affluent add a few bars of their own. Take, for example, the protectionism that wealthy families impose upon themselves. Wariness of public scrutiny and becoming the unwitting victims of papparatzi feeding frenzies cause the financially affluent to withdraw from the flow of public life and move in protected exclusive circles, to the extent of deciding where their children will go to school, what careers they will be allowed to go into, and even what families they will be allowed to marry into. Discretion is understandable, but fear of being hurt either by censure from their own privileged circle or by a public whose knowledge of “the rich and famous” is gained from tabloids and television shows like Who Wants to be A Millionaire? will not be resolved by isolation. In fact, isolating may let in far worse vermin than papparatzi ­– namely, the misconceptions, secrets, and lies that breed inauthentic lives for generations. Better by far to set out on the uncertain byroads of life in quest of freedom than to look outwardly happy and “privileged” while inwardly dictated to by our silken surroundings.

Fortunately, it is not circumstances per se that constrain anyone\’s quest for freedom, including that of those who inherit or acquire wealth. What constrains our quest is not being able to imagine how easily true affluence will come to us if we but practice our freedom day by day. Once freedom is our destination of choice, our entire rendering of affluence undergoes a gradual shift and begins to grow larger and bolder. We let go of the old affluence of obligatory privilege and choose instead the new affluence as the opportunity for privilege to make a difference to those causes that we espouse out of our own freedom. We examine goals, objectives, and ends in terms of the means it will take to achieve them, and if the means lack the openness and candor of freedom, we choose other ends or revise our means. We turn from wondering what others will think and choose instead to live for what we will think. We continue to love our family but realize that it is our birthright to find within ourselves something new to contribute to what has been. We tend our family assets as we would a mighty tree whose fruit can feed many endeavors if we but cut out dead wood and keep the roots healthy. With such a tree, an economy of profit transforms into an economy of care [1], and leadership by domination and superiority transmutes into a leadership based on benevolence and service.

Freedom has been explored for thousands of years by intrepid trailblazers who have left behind stories of their adventures. The myths and legends of these brave people afford inspiration for our own travels on the freedom road. In the Old Testament, we hear of Joseph who suffered disdain and displacement because of his brothers’ greed and fear, then freed himself from prison and helped his family survive famine. Four hundred years later, Moses liberated himself and his people from slavery. Still later in India, Siddhartha Gautama — later called the Buddha or “Awakened One” — left his family’s wealthy, pleasure-filled palace to live the life of an ascetic and seek the inner liberation that would put an end to humanity’s suffering.

Not every journey to freedom involves liberating millions of other people through endurance of extreme danger and adversity (Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Suu Kyi of Myanmar), but every journey does entail risk and therefore begins with casting a level eye over the terrain ahead. Perhaps examining topographical maps that others through history have left behind in their biographies will offer clues to what lies ahead, or perhaps you have learned about pitfalls from acquaintances who set off on their own paths? Embarking on the path of freedom involves accepting challenges and facing tough tests to discover answers to questions such as, How much am I willing to sacrifice to gain freedom? How courageous am I? and Do I have the strength to withstand peer pressure while pursuing my liberation?

For financially affluent adventurers in search of freedom, getting a feel for the terrain ahead may include examining personal freedom and individualism as they contrast to the ethos of noblesse oblige [2] and obligation to family that they inherited; or it may mean looking more closely at the Art of War [3] ethos of management and leadership as it impacts investments and political strategies or conflicts with non-profit philosophies. Both “new money” and “old money” will find that they are challenged in different ways by the thorny and tantalizing possibilities of personal freedom, and that the use of wealth itself is challenged when each freedom warrior insists on making decisions about their wealth out of their own freedom. Both Mandela and Suu Kyi are excellent examples of strong individualists whose noblesse oblige serves others not out of tradition or consensus, but out of the freedom they themselves have discovered. The essential distinction between the traditional practices of philanthropy and noblesse oblige, and the unstinting work of freedom warriors like Mandela and Suu Kyi, is the difference between doing good out of obligation and doing good out of the deep love that is benevolence for those whose names we will never know. Freedom is the midwife of the anonymous love that guides true affluence. For the new noblesse oblige, it is the freedom of the giver that is truly noble. By making freedom our destination, we walk the high way to loving and serving others.

The route to freedom will cross new emotional terrain, as well. Impressions will arise and remain or fall away. Some terrain will be smooth and make you feel all’s well with the world; other terrain will be rocky and seem to stretch on forever. Some feelings will come to light all on their own from your shifting interior, while others will approach you from the daily life you thought you knew but which only now begins to reveal its deeper essence because you are paying closer attention to it. As your sensibilities deepen and new emotions leap to the surface like fish, old emotions that you thought you were done with will come up for a breath of fresh air and new insight. At first, the intensity of so much feeling may be frightening because it is foreign to the kind of living you have grown accustomed to. Self-doubt may rise up like Marley’s ghost to ask, Do I know who I am anymore? Authoritative voices will whisper that you must abandon this adolescent foolishness about freedom and return to your senses by accepting life on its own terms, etc. If you manage to identify whose ghostly voice you internalized so long ago, you may experience a sudden surge of energy as a few more bars of the prison others unwittingly built for you melt away.

But the greatest miracle that follows from forging new emotional terrain and letting feelings be without directing or shoving them aside is how your relationships with others will reflect like a mirror the changes going on inside of you. A vitality will begin to surface everywhere your foot falls on the freedom road. Suddenly, people you thought you had pegged speak and act in ways that utterly surprise you: the crotchety banker shares a moving incident from his boyhood; the unapproachable great aunt reveals her secret hothouse of exotic orchids; your wife tells you something she has been afraid to tell you for years and your relationship springs to life again; you look at your son and suddenly see the man he longs to be, and wonder that you did not see it before. New friends and connections crop up in the context of odd and pleasing synchronicities. As the new wind of freedom wafts over your life, a gust will blow in from the past to warn you of how dangerous change is: old friends fall away, family members voice their displeasure that you are “different,” the hierarchy at work rattles its saber because your style of work is changing. All of this is to be expected when your destination is freedom.

Having looked down the trail as far as you can without venturing onto it, it is time to commit to the journey. If you’ve gotten this far, it means you are no longer content to live a life dictated to by family concerns, political persuasions, or religious dogma. Being able to affirm just this much means there’s no going back, and yet at the same time it’s not enough to just plunge ahead without some idea of what you want for yourself. Destination Freedom is yours and awaits you.

In closing, a big thank you to David Rose of the Unified Field Corporation (UFC) and Cliff Feigenbaum of the GreenMoney Journal for giving me the opportunity to share this excerpt from my soon to be released book.

I suggest that anyone who is truly interested in sustainable change take a good look at what David and UFC (www.unifiedfieldcorporation.com ) are doing.  Cliff is a passionate leader and catalyst and is greatly deserving of our gratitude and support for his commitment and service over the last 20 years.

Article Notes:

[1]  Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha. Penguin Books, 1999. Translated by Joachim Neugroschel.

[2]  Noblesse oblige: benevolent, honorable behavior considered to be the responsibility of persons of high birth or rank.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.

[3]  Sun Tzu and the Art of Business: Six Strategic Principles for Managers (Oxford University Press, 1996).

Article by Timothy David Karsten, founder of TDKA Group

Timothy works with business and non-profit leaders, wealthy individuals, and wealthy families who are curious about possibilities they hadn’t previously imagined for themselves. Timothy guides his clients to challenge inhibiting beliefs in their roles as cultural and civic leaders and stewards of wealth, especially related to business, philanthropy, economic and environmental health. Timothy has pursued diverse paths of formal and informal study and exploration. Beyond graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economics and International Relations and earning a law degree from USC Law Center, Timothy\’s travels and interest in diversity of culture and customs have taken him around the world. He has immersed himself in the study of philosophy as well as the most recent advances in physics, brain science and health to better understand the complex interaction of human potential.

Timothy\’s greatest strength is his ability to balance analytic skill with creative and intuitive understanding. His clients remark upon his unique ability to arrive at the heart of the matter and gain actionable insights with both laser-like speed and impressive depth. For over 20 years, Timothy has overseen family trusts, investment strategies, and asset managers. Since 2000, he has managed the investment portfolio of the Karsten Family Foundation and driven its mission through grant making focused on the environment, education, housing, and empowering girls and women.

He happily shares his home in Pacific Palisades, California with his wife, Karinna, and their Jack Russell Terrier, Sparky. When Timothy is not busy raising the bar of expectation and performance for his clients, you can find him entertaining friends and family, playing music, discovering unknown roads and mountain trails around the world, and bringing magic to his organic gardens.