George Kaiser
George Kaiser
George B. Kaiseris an American businessman. He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is among the 100 richest people in the world and one of the top 50 American philanthropists...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth29 July 1942
CountryUnited States of America
failed
America's 'social contract' is equal opportunity... yet we have failed in achieving that seminal goal.
create environment genetic home kids parents sensory smart tend
Rich, smart parents tend to have rich, smart kids - not because it's genetic but because they can create a home environment and sensory stimulation that lower-income kids often don't get.
annoying due fact held kids largely maybe moms perceived playing rich sat sent six
Maybe the perceived fact that smart, rich parents tended to have smart, rich kids was largely due to the fact that they also tended to have stay-at-home moms or nannies who read to their kids, held them, put mobiles over their cribs, playing those annoying ditties, and sent them off for SAT training at six months.
arrived charitable commitment due dumb early fortune good initiative largely personal recognized superior suppose
I suppose I arrived at my charitable commitment largely through guilt. I recognized early on that my good fortune was not due to superior personal character or initiative so much as it was to dumb luck.
business
In the charitable world as in the business world, opportunities should drive budgets, not the other way around.
advanced born lottery loving obligation restore society special won
Those who have won the ovarian lottery by being born in an advanced society to loving parents have a special obligation to help restore the American Dream.
prefer
I prefer doing things rather than sitting around talking about doing things.
born chances children cognitive good kids poor rich stimulus success tools
If you are born into poverty, the chances are good that your children will be born into poverty. Find a way to give poor kids the same cognitive stimulus that rich kids receive, and they should end up with the same tools for success.
companies desperate net operating
During the desperate depression of the 1980s, there were no oil and gas companies without net operating losses.
opportunity
If you are doing what everyone else is doing, there is probably not an opportunity there.
age appears brain dollars formative geometric later learning reverse spend takes year
Truly, learning appears to be a reverse geometric progression with experiences at one hour, one day, one month or one year dramatically more influential and formative than later experiences. As has often been quoted, 85% of brain development takes place by age 3, and yet we spend only 4% of our educational dollars by that point.
advance anonymous charitable seductive
Naming rights are a seductive philanthropic inducement, yet more anonymous operational support may better advance the charitable purpose.