Timothy Sykes

Yes!

Timothy Sykes

Yeah.

I just recently got into the charity space. I started my charity, the Timothy Sykes Foundation about a year and a half ago. It took a while to get the full 501C3 official status but, I’ve also been working with other charities, and I zeroed in on my passion which is education.

Just a few weeks ago, I announced this huge donation for my charity of a million dollars to what I think is the best charity in the world right now, Pencils of Promise. They built schools all over the world. They’re at around 400 schools. So this million dollars at my charity is donating to them will open a few more dozen schools in Laos and other third world countries.

Timothy Sykes

I’m someone who teaches stock trading, and I know education is hard, but in these third world countries, forget about specialized education. We’re just talking about basic literacy and just the ability to even read and have a future because many people around the world don’t even have that and then they have to work this manual labor jobs that are earning so little money for their families, and they’re stuck in this cycle forever. We have to try and do what we can to change that.

I’m proud of my charity, and I think with all my business success, you look back and you’re like “What are you proud of?” Okay, I’m a successful trader. I have a few millionaire students.

Giving back and changing the lives of thousands of people, is far more valuable than money.

Timothy Sykes

Charity is kind of a weird space where it feels good to give back, but if you look on social media, my posts where I talk about charity are the least liked. It’s not necessarily great for my business, but it’s perfect for me.

What I think is that you need to have goals and you need to define those goals for yourself clearly. Asking myself 20 years ago “Would you be willing to give a million dollars to somebody else?” I would be like “Hell, no.” There’s so much I can do with that. But, after you make millions of dollars and your business is doing very well, you have to look for more meaning in your like, and you have to create new goals.

I didn’t jump both feet into charity all at first. I wasn’t like “Oh, let me donate a million dollars. I don’t know what to do with it but let me just give it to everybody.” I’ve been making donations of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 thousand dollars for several years, and only when I found the best charity that is in alignment with my goals and their execution is superior, that’s when I jumped at it.

I think people should look to find their passions and then try to find individuals or organizations that are in the similar space, and then try and find the best in that area and work with them.

Once you find the best executors, that’s when you can create greatness, and you can grow a lot faster than if you work with just some random charity.

It doesn’t have necessarily to be charity. It’s not just about giving back through money. You can give time. Maybe it’s not even charity that drives you. Maybe you want a big house or a fast sports car.

Whatever drives you, try to do what you can to get there and then try to be the best in that space.

Timothy Sykes

Yeah.

There are a lot of bad charities out there, and it’s crazy. Even some of the most well-known ones, they have such bad expense to giving back ratios. If you see a commercial on TV, it’s probably a bad charity cost wise because they’re spending that money to try and get the word out there using expensive TV ads.

There are some websites out there like Charity Navigator, GuideStar, CharityWatch. They are three that I look for. They rate charities based on how efficient they are, but for me, it’s more than just a numbers game.

I want to see solid execution because you might give the money to build a school but then what happens after creating it? It could be an Olympic stadium where you make it then five-ten years later; it’s totally irrelevant as we see with a lot of these Olympic stadiums all over the world.

Pencils of Promise doesn’t just build a school. They also invest in teacher education and supporting program so that the school is working well. I don’t just invest in any programs. I ask for my school to have internet access because I’m a big believer in internet education. We’re testing that out, but we still have to wait and see on the data.

It’s cool that Pencils of Promise uses the big data from over 400 schools now so they can see what programs are working in different countries. You have to get into the charity and understand them. I would highly recommend donating a small amount and then participating. Maybe not even donating a small amount like spending time at first with the charity and getting a feel for how good or bad they are and how well they execute.

Timothy Sykes

I went to Pencils of Promise’s charity gala. It was the best gala I’ve ever had. Just with the whole donation process, they were so attuned to what I wanted and so organized. It was impressive, and now I’m doing this interview in Laos, and this is the best little charity trip that I’ve ever been on, and we visited several schools, and everything is organized from A to Z.

You have to get a feeling, and you have to try to see what fits best. It’s no different than what I teach in stock trading where some people are like “Oh, I’m scared to stock trade. I’m going to lose everything.”

It’s not like a casino in the stock market where you bet all on red or black and you double your money or you lose all your money. At stock trading, you can cut your losses quickly and the same thing with charities, if you donate or you spend time with the charity, and you’re like “Well, they’re not as good as I thought.” Move on.

Pencils of Promise are solidly rated on all those websites; Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, and GuideStar. Also, I have several friends in the internet space like Lewis Howes, Gary Vaynerchuk, Pat Flynn, Addicted 2 Success – Joel Brown. They’re all involved with this charity.

When my friends are involved, and they start seeing something, then I get a little better sense of what this charity is, and then all the perfect execution, that’s what led me to donate the 1 million dollars.

I don’t just throw around a million dollars very quickly. You have to be very cautious with charities. But, you start to get a sense over a few weeks and a few months. Pencils of Promise for me is number one.

Timothy Sykes

Yeah.

I think it’s very fulfilling. I’m not a big believer specifically in donating a certain percentage. I think the million dollars that I’m giving back for my charity is probably too big of a percentage if you ask any responsible tax manager but I don’t care. You have to do what feels right, and this feels good.

Like I said, I’ve been involved with the charity for several years, but now, I’m jumping in with both feet. You go with it. You try different stuff that works, and it’s not just about charity and giving back.

Timothy Sykes

For me, this has made the money that I’ve made much more fulfilling, and it’s made my whole teaching experience more fulfilling, but you have to find what fulfills you. We’re all different.

I don’t like religions or people that say you have to do this a certain way. If I’ve learned anything from teaching my students is that we’re all different and we all have different hopes, desires, dreams, and personality.

Timothy Sykes

You have to find what works best for you. I’m proud to share my charity story it’s the most fulfilling thing that I’ve personally done.

All that you can do is try to find what moves you and fulfills you. Then, focus on that as much as you can.

It’s not about what other people say, or your parents told you that where you should be involved. I know a lot of individuals whose parents wanted them to be a doctor, a lawyer, and make steady income and have a nice safe education, and that’s not what they want. Maybe they want to be a singer or a poet, or maybe they wanted to get into charity space.

You have to focus on you, and we live in very exciting times where you have to ability to learn pretty much any single thing you want online. You don’t need a fancy degree. You don’t need connections like you did in the past. Your family name means almost nothing, and that’s a very exciting time. You just need to have that understanding that the world is big and vast, and you can do whatever it is that you want.

Timothy Sykes

Yeah.

It’s such an exciting time to be alive whether it’s charity, internet education, or anything in technology or social media. You just need to embrace it and recognize it. Don’t be left behind. Some people who refuse to live like use emails and some are “Oh, I don’t want to get into that space. I don’t understand it.”

You can begin to understand anything. Again, I trade stocks. It’s such a weird little niche that it’s all about money and it’s a very kind of cold field.

If you can start to bring yourself into whatever it is that you do, be real, honest, and transparent, you will go so much further than if you’re close minded, afraid to admit mistakes, embarrassed, and you don’t want to overshare on social media.

I overshare. I don’t care. I love the whole sharing economy. I like the whole mindset of sharing everything. Sometimes, I do look like a dumb ass, but it’s okay because we all make mistakes.

If we share openly, and we’re more of ourselves rather than putting on these fake fronts, the world will be a better place, and you will go further in whatever industry you choose because it’s like a breath of fresh air.

There are many fake people out there. Don’t be one of them.