Key Takeaways
- I began giving during the years when my own finances were uncertain, long before Atlantic Tech had anything that looked like success.
- Waiting until generosity feels comfortable usually means never starting, because the definition of comfortable keeps shifting whenever income does.
- Giving works best as a standing habit practiced on ordinary days, rather than a milestone announced when the numbers finally allow it.
- The causes I support, from vulnerable families in Lebanon to young people facing homelessness, were chosen from conviction rather than strategy.
My giving started before my company made money because I never treated generosity as a reward for success. I grew up in a blue-collar family, and in the early years of my entrepreneurial life, I knew real financial uncertainty, the kind where you count carefully and hope nothing unexpected breaks. Even in those years, I gave what I could.
That order matters to me. By the time I founded Atlantic Tech in 2020, giving was already a fixed part of how I lived, so the company grew up around the habit instead of the habit waiting on the company. People sometimes assume the sequence ran the other way, with the business finding its footing first and the philanthropy following. The order was reversed in my case, and I think that reversal explains most of what I believe about generosity.
Why I Gave When I Could Barely Afford To
I gave during the uncertain years because I understood generosity as a matter of character rather than a matter of margin. The amounts were small, and the size was beside the point. What mattered was becoming the kind of person for whom giving was normal, so that the only questions left were how much and where.
Some of that came straight from how I was raised. In the blue-collar world I grew up in, nobody waited to feel secure before helping a neighbor, because nobody ever felt fully secure. People shared what they had while they were still worried about their own bills. Watching that as a kid taught me that generosity is proportional and that willingness matters more than the number attached to it.
I also knew myself well enough to distrust my own delays. If I had told myself I would start giving once things settled, I am fairly sure the definition of settled would have kept retreating just ahead of me, the way it does for most people.
Does Waiting Until You Are Comfortable Ever Work?
In my experience, waiting for comfort fails because comfort is a moving target. When income grows, obligations grow with it, and so do standards, expectations, and the quiet sense of what you now need to feel safe. A person who cannot part with fifty dollars in a lean season rarely becomes a person who parts with fifty thousand in a strong one. The muscle was never built.
Generosity compounds the way most disciplines do. Small, early, consistent practice makes larger giving feel natural later, and skipping the early practice makes larger giving feel impossible at any size. I have written elsewhere about how faith shapes my giving, and faith is certainly the root of it for me, but the mechanics hold regardless of what you believe. Habits arrive before capacity, or they tend not to arrive at all.
The Causes I Support and Why
My giving today concentrates on healthcare support, environmental causes, humanitarian aid, and community programs. Within those areas, a few commitments have become especially close to my heart:
- Sisters of the Cross, which serves vulnerable populations in Lebanon
- A marine wildlife and ocean protection organization
- An organization providing housing and supportive services for young people facing homelessness
The common thread is that each one serves people or places that are easy to overlook. I felt overlooked at points in my own early career, when the finances were thin, and the outcome was far from certain, and I have never forgotten how much difference steady support makes to someone in that position.
Closer to home, I personally organize holiday campaigns every year that deliver toys and essential supplies to local families. I stay personally involved in that work because proximity keeps giving honest. Writing a check is good. Packing the boxes and seeing the families reminds you why the check matters.
Why Giving Is Operational Rather Than Ceremonial
I treat giving the way I treat payroll: scheduled, expected, and independent of mood or metrics. It does not wait for a strong quarter or pause for a weak one. When generosity is tied to milestones, it becomes a form of celebration, and celebrations are easy to postpone. When it is built into the ordinary rhythm of life and work, it simply happens, the way the important things should.
That is also why I have never been comfortable with giving publicity. My core conviction is that success is meaningful only when it serves a purpose greater than oneself, and that conviction has to show up in the operating rhythm rather than the press release. If the giving stops whenever the attention stops, it was never really giving.
Where This Leaves Me
The giving came first, and it stays first. Atlantic Tech has grown in ways I could not have predicted during the uncertain years, and I am grateful for that, but the company remains a means, not the point. The same instinct that had me giving before I could comfortably afford it is why I now spend time mentoring younger founders: time, like money, is easiest to hoard and best when shared.
If you take one thing from this, I hope it is the order of operations. Give first, in whatever proportion your season allows, and let success catch up to the habit.
Questions I Hear Often
Did giving early ever put your business at risk?
No, because I always gave in proportion to what I actually had rather than what I hoped to have. Oddly enough, the discipline of giving carefully made me more honest about money in general, which helped the business rather than hurting it.
How do you decide which causes to support?
I look for genuine need in places that attention tends to skip, and I look for organizations doing steady work rather than visible work. Conviction drives the choice. If a cause only makes sense as a strategy, it does not belong on my list.
Should a founder give before the company is profitable?
I would never write a rule for someone else's finances, because I do not know their season. I will only say that the habit is far easier to build when the numbers are small, and that I have never met anyone who regretted starting early.
