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    The Power of Half
    The Power of Half
    The Power of Half
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Power of Half

    Written by Kevin Salwen and Hannah Salwen

    Narrated by Fred Sanders

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Simultaneous with the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-547-24806-0

     

    The inspiring and moving story of one family’s unlikely quest to stop taking and start giving back—from a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter and his daughter

    It all started when 15-year-old Hannah Salwen, idealistic but troubled by a growing sense of injustice in the world, had a eureka moment when a homeless man in her neighborhood was juxtaposed against a glistening Mercedes coupe. “You know, Dad,” she said, pointing, “If that man had a less nice car, that man could have a meal.”

    This glaring disparity led the Salwen family of four, caught up like so many other Americans in this age of consumption and waste, to follow Hannah’s urge to stop talking and start doing. And so they embarked on an incredible journey together, deciding to sell their Atlanta mansion, downsize to a house half its size, and give half of their profits to a worthy charity. Each week they met over dinner to discuss their plan. At first it was an outlandish scheme. “What, are you crazy? No way!” Then it was a challenge. “We are TOTALLY doing this.” It would transport them across the globe and well out of their comfort zone. In the end they found a needy village in Ghana where their commitment of funds and their unwavering follow-through would change lives of hundreds, for good. It would also alter irrevocably the lives of four normal Americans who learned together that half could be so much more.

    With deft prose, an unassuming tone, and an endearing sense of humor, The Power of Half chronicles this remarkable, unlikely journey, this reimagining of the American dream, one family at a time. It also offers readers a very accessible road map to employ the power of half to their own lives, no matter one’s means or resources. In that way, it shows readers how to connect their families through a unifying purpose, an antidote to the splintering of American families in this era of iPods, video-gaming, and other solo activities.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 10, 2010
    ISBN9780061969324
    The Power of Half
    Author

    Kevin Salwen

    Kevin Salwen was a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal for more than eighteen years. After that, he started a magazine, Motto. He has served on the board of Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta and works with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

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    Reviews for The Power of Half

    3.5/5

    51 ratings9 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This is a story of a rich family deciding to become simply well-off and how they spin it into a tale of sacrifice. The author is pitifully unaware about how wealthy his family still is, about how uncomfortable his son is with the whole affair, and about how his whole story stinks of white savior-ism. Not worth the moral it tries to beat into the reader.
    • 4/5
      The premise of this book was interesting - a family pledges to sell their ginormous home and use half the profits to accomplish a charitable project. I liked the reflections about what their family learned about what they really valued and how working on this project together had such positive effects on their family. It was a little hard to relate to, however. I agree that in general we can all give more than we are giving, but their lifestyle is quite a bit different than the majority of Americans and that was a little off-putting.
    • 2/5
      First off, Hannah, the 15 year old co-author, is awesome.I wasn't inspired to act by this book, as I found myself unimpressed with the Salwen's level of sacrifice vs. what it would take someone with more "average" finances to take this project on. The book examines this problem to an extent, as the Salwens ruminate over the fact that moving from a $2m house to a $1m house wasn't actually much of a sacrifice at all. I'm glad they acknowledged that, but I was nevertheless disappointed. I wanted more of a moral compass from this book -- a way to draw the line or to "stop taking."
    • 5/5
      This is a true story about a very persuasive teenage girl who convinces her family to do more to help people. The parents decide to sell their expensive house, and buy a smaller one which is half the price, and give the difference to charity. I'm not sure the book convinced me how they decided to make such a big change, but then again, and impulsive decisions are hard to explain, but the fact that they stuck with the decision is very admirable.They also decide to let their two teenage children to have a say in how the money will be used. Kevin, the father, writes the story, and Hannah, has written inserts on how we, the readers, can also help. I really enjoyed reading the story of how they decided what group of people to help, and how they went about helping. They had a hard time selling their house in the tough economy, so they actually gave other money instead of money from the sale of the house, so the premise is harder to explain.This is a great book for anyone giving money for charity, to understand how to give money so that it will do some good, instead of just giving a hand-out that winds up hurting more than helping. This book is also helpful in parent-child relations. I wish I had this kind of advice earlier about how to have family meetings, and how to share the decision-making power with the children. I also liked the journal keeping they did, through which they also shared their thoughts with each other.
    • 4/5
      This is the true story of one family’s decision to actually do their bit to make the world a little better.The Salwen’s live in suburban Atlanta, in a $1.5 million house, but they are veteran volunteers through the local Habitat for Humanity. One day, fourteen-year-old Hannah has a Eureka! moment. In the car with her father, she sees a shiny Mercedes car next to a homeless man. She realizes that if the Mercedes driver was driving a lesser car, the homeless man could have a meal. This leads to a decision by the family, not an easy decision, to downsize into a smaller house, and give half the proceeds to the poor.The first decision to be made was who they should help. There are many worthy charities and causes out there; the decision was made to focus on poverty in Africa. The next decision to be made was how they should help. Simply throwing money at the African continent will not help; in fact, it may just make things worse. The family was very methodical, researching a number of smaller charities, and meeting with representatives of their top 4 choices to hear their "sales pitch." The Salwen’s eventually decided to assist a couple of villages in the country of Ghana, traveling there to see the results of their generosity, up close and personal. The only problem in their whole plan was that their house went up for sale right in the middle of the housing crisis, so it was on the market for a very long time.Along the way, the Salwen’s learned, the hard way, that not everyone will "get it." Even friends and relatives interpreted their generosity as a comment on their lack of generosity (we’re better than you are). Perhaps a bit of discretion is not a bad idea.Obviously, not everyone can downsize into a smaller house, and donate half the proceeds to the poor. Find something you can do. It can be as simple as halving your TV or computer game time each week, and spending that extra time volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen. This is an inspiring story of how one family gave back to others, and it will inspire others to do likewise.
    • 4/5
      I used to think that I was a generous person until I read this book. I mean, after all, I gave to different charities, helped those in need, volunteered a little, and I even gave a home to a homeless person we knew. But when I read this book, I felt that I was falling short and wasn't sure that I had it in me to be as generous as this family.This is the true life story of the Salwen family from Atlanta GA who sold their $2Million house so that they could take the proceeds and donate to a charity which helped fight hunger in Africa. They donated $800,000 to this effort because their 14 year old daughter felt that they weren't doing enough to assist those that were less fortunate. I truly admire this family because I don't think that I or my husband would be willing to make this kind of sacrifice. This book raised a lot of questions throughout especially from the journal of the young daughter, but the one that I don't know how to answer is…. How many lives would you be willing to save in exchange for the person that you love the most? I can't answer that, can you?
    • 4/5
      The story is a fascinating one. This family decided to sell their house, buy a smaller one (at half the price) and give the difference to charity. The book tells the story of how this family came to this decision and how they chose where to give their money.It's not a touchy feely, over the top, inspiring book. It is inspiring, but it's inspiring in such an attainable way. The Salwens are quite honest about their finances. They were living in a $2 million home. They downsized their family of four into a $900,000 home in the same neighborhood. Sacrifice is a very personal thing. The Salwens recognize simultaneously how much and how little they did. It was a crazy idea, but they also talk about how easy it was to do (except for actually finding a buyer for their home).I enjoyed this book in different ways than I expteced to.First, as someone who lived in Atlanta for years, I enjoyed the local flavor of the Salwens' story a great deal. I appreciated the adaptation of their message. They recognize their choice is not one everyone could make, but they do encourage the power of half in some way. If your family watches four hours of television together each night, cut that in half and find some way to do something more interactive together or give back. It's an adaptable message, and it's beauty truly is in its simplicity. Lastly, I was surprised how much I learned from the way Kevin and Joan parent. My vision of familyhood and parenting is quite similar to what the Salwens have done, except, of course, our ideas are simply ideas, and they've found ways to enact them.The most interesting part of the book was the Salwens' journey deciding where and how to spend the money. We all have the desire to change the world (I still harbor illusions of this truth, even though it is admittedly buried more deeply in some than others), but no one wants to feel futile. The how is the hardest part. Kevin, the father, tells the story, but each chapter features two pages from Hannah, their oldest daughter. Hannah includes a children and teen friendly activity in each one.
    • 4/5
      I truly admire the Salwen family for the journey they’ve taken. The journey from being the embodiment of the modern consumerist American Way to a family that has together decided to make a difference in the world. A family that worked together to make sure that what they did and what they gave would make a positive difference and not a negative one. A family in which the parents and children have equal voices and equal responsibility.I learned a great deal about charitable giving from this book. One assumes that writing the check to a charity is the hard part…and that money makes everything better for those in need. But, with the careful research done by the Salwens, this proves to be untrue.“A Princeton University study showed that more than 1.6 million people go on mission trips in a typical year, spending an average of eight days. The total invested in these sojourns: $2.4 billion a year. But evidence is growing that the social impact can be a huge minus for the developing world. Critics deride the trips as “religious tourism” for “vacationaries”. Often the activities undertaken by these groups are little more than make-work. The Washington Post noted that one Mexican church was painted six times by six different mission groups in a single summer.”The Salwens learn that empowering the local people in an impoverished area is what makes the real difference, and that the way to empower them depends on the local customs and what the end goal is. “Willing hands certainly have a place when the organizational structure is correct, as a Habitat build alongside the homeowner. But projects must be carefully crafted, assuring that empowerment is front and center even when outsiders are involved. Generosity can’t be a simple paint-by-numbers exercise.”Although it goes against their nature, they learn that they need to stand back and support the people receiving their help, and not jump in and do the work for them.I hate to be critical of any part of this story, but I was very disappointed in one aspect of the storytelling. This is a story of one family’s decision to sell their very nice house and give half of the proceeds ($800,000) to charity. That’s huge and amazing and wonderful. That’s what drew me to read this. But in the book it only takes 9 pages to go from Hannah’s inspiring moment to this huge idea. And then 8 more pages after that, the decision is made by the family to go ahead with this huge life change.True, there is a great deal of discussion regarding the who, what, where kind of details…but I was shocked that such a small part of the book was given over to the discussion, introspection and soul searching that MUST have happened before these four people agreed to change the path of their lives in such a major way.Reaction to their choice was surprising. When they excitedly told friends and family what they’d decided to do – some were supportive, some were wary, and some…got defensive. Which made sense once I really started to think about it. Very few people could or would make this choice…and hearing someone you know say they are going to give up their home, move to a much smaller one and give half of the money away makes one really reflect on one’s own giving.And in the end, the Salwens benefited from their giving almost as much as the African villages that received their donations.“To put it in a literary context, we had come of age. We had coalesced as a family, brought together by a mission that really mattered. Maybe it was a bit premature to claim victory, but sitting there at the dinner table in Accra, Ghana, I believed we had found our family legend. We knew what we wanted to stand for.”
    • 5/5
      I was curious about this book when I saw it as as option on Vine. I too, feel that too many have too much and give too little. I don'tmean Trump-like folks..I mean regular people like you and me. I cringe when I am out with someone who pulls out a tip calculator.This happens most often when I am with someone who makes considerable more money than I do. Make someones day by giving them a good tip.. more than theyexpect. That few dollars isn't going to make me a millionaire, but it might make their day. Someone panhandling? They might actually be hungry, or cold.. or something other than a drug addict. A few dollars might help. If it turns out they spend it on alcohol, my intention was good. Now mind you, I love in a small town where those whoask are few and far between, not in a city. So I guess you will say it is easy for me to say, and you would be right. This book is about a family who has taken this to a remarkably grand scale. The who familymade it a priority to help others. They did research, they gave moeny, they gave time. This is the sstory of how they got to the point that they sold a two million dollar home and gave half of the profits to people they had never met.Most of the book is written by Kevin, the dad. Interludes by Hanna are stunning in their simplicity and understanding of the world and the people we share it with. This young lady will be a force to be reckoned with someday soon.. more so than she is already. What wonderful and inspiring people they are. The adults both gave up high power jobs to help others, or be happier themselves. (95 of income gone in a flash because Joan decided she could help young women better by teaching than by being a high powered mentor. Kevin followed a dream. They became happier. The end of the book has this amazing family meeting some of the people they have helped. I can only imagine how that must feel. These people raised their children to know how to give and volunteer. It was a lesson that was taken to heart.Hanna, a fourteen year old was the catalyst for the change that allowed them to give so much to so many. This is a journey worth reading about. I dare you to do it without being inspired to give more yourself. So many of us think we do "our share". (Whatever that is ?) What would happen if we decided to do more.. start small or go grand, but start. This book will help you see how big a difference we really can make.