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The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing
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Sales rank 246,839
Customers rating (based on 18 reviews)
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The secret life of the billionaire who is determined to give all his money away before he dies--it's harder than you think! In 1988 Forbes Magazine hailed Chuck Feeney as the twenty-third richest American alive. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a blue-collar Irish-American family during the Depression, a veteran of the Korean War, he had made a fortune as founder of Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain. But secretly, Feeney had already transferred all his wealth to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. Only in 1997, when he sold his duty free interests, was he "outed" as one of the greatest and most mysterious American philanthropists in modern times. A frugal man who travels economy class and does not own a house or a car, Feeney then went "underground" again, until he decided in 2005 to cooperate in a biography to promote giving-while-living. Now in his mid-seventies, he is determined his foundation should spend the remaining $4 billion in his lifetime. The Billionaire Who Wasn't is a tale of one of the greatest untold retail triumphs of the twentieth century, and of what happens to a unique man and his family when confronted with wealth beyond imagining.
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| Publisher | PublicAffairs | | Release date | 09/2007 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $26.95 | | Our price | $17.79 (you save 33.99%) | | Used price | from $0.18 |
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 Cornell produces world leaders, read about Chuck!
This is a must read for anyone who is looking to keep all the good things in the world in perspective. Chuck Feeney represents the best long term interests of everyone in this me, me, me society (other than he made much of the fortune he gave away from booze and cigarettes). Excellent insight into how people go about giving way fortunes to the causes they care deeply about. Also fantastic insight into Cornell University and it's exceptional leaders including Frank Rhoades, one of Cornell's outstanding presidents. Fantastic reading at a world trendsetting pace. Excellent!
 The first half of the book was great...the second not so much.
Where can I start? Initially, it was the title of this book that attracted me to it, reading the synopsis, I expected to hear the story of a generous billionaire who overcame the superfluous and false promises of wealth and just gave it all away. That's what I got out of this book and then some. "Then some" being the second half of the book where the author finally delves into the various stories of who, what, how, when, and why Chuck Feeney the billionaire gave his money away. For the last 150 pages or so, we hear the same tale over and over again: Chuck travels the world, meets random people, is sympathetic to their cause, surprises them with money from his foundation, they are grateful but don't know who to be grateful to since Chuck is obsessed with anonymity, Chuck is just a simple guy, etc, etc. Although the diversity of organizations Chuck gave to is great, the stories get a little repetitive and I felt as though the whole coming-out-of-anonymity part was a bit pretentious as if to give Chuck a pat on the back for being anonymous in the first place. Another problem I had with the book was the DETAILS and specifics, there were so many names, numbers, dates in the stories that I often found myself flipping back a few pages to remind myself of who was who and what the circumstances were.
That being said, I really enjoyed the first half of the book; I felt as though I were hearing from one of Chuck's friends growing up, learning about the personality traits and globe-trotting adventures he went through to build up his multi-national company. The business aspect of the story was also quite fascinating even until the very end of the book. How Chuck and friends managed to even, well, manage the global behemoth they created is something I couldn't even dream of doing as a single human being and the troubles they went through to keep it alive were intriguing with a little suspense thrown into the mix.
If the author shortened the book, cut out some of the stories, and didn't go into so many fine details, I think I'd give it 1/2 more star if I could.
 No shipment , no reply
I did not receive this book nor did I receive the courtesy of a reply from the vendor when I inquired about it (twice). After waiting a month I cancelled the charges on PayPal and on my credit card.
 We all can be more than we expect
A lot of other reviews will give you a lot more detail on the contents of the book but I simply want to share the primary point I picked up i.e. we can all be a little more than we than we expect and we alone determine how much of ourselves we then give back to others.
When we give back it should be on our own terms and founded on our own personal motivations and objectives. It is great that you have the highly public efforts of people like Gates and Clinton but the real difference makers are the people that give behind the scenes whether $5 or $1bn.
A worthy read
The example billionaire
Chuck Feeney is my hero. What an example is this man for making a billion dollar career, while having lots of fun, and then spending it (giving it away) in a controlled and very constructive manner! A must read for anyone who wants to make a lot of money. Feeney had a cause, and became a billionaire in the process.
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