About The Bach Foundation

This is not charity.

Charity flatters the giver while leaving the receiver still begging.

I believe in something greater: empowerment.

Not to give a fish, but to give the fishing stick.

On Adversity & Innovation

The problem with innovation is that it’s detractive. It uplifts millions — but at the expense of the few who profit from keeping things broken.

When your idea makes life better, faster, or cheaper for millions of ordinary people — it makes life harder for those who built their fortunes on limitation.

Every innovator, every entrepreneur, every disruptor must be prepared for this truth: doing good for millions often means doing bad to the powerful. And they will fight back.

They will protect their corruption, their cash cow, their advantage — with everything they have.

But here’s the secret: it’s easy to defeat them — not by force, but by using their own power against them; by letting them dig the very hole they planned for you.

In my early days, I met a few of them. People who tried to harm me, block me, stop me. Some out of jealousy. Others out of fear — afraid of the free and better tools I was building for the public.

But they lost everything and vanished, as if there’s an unseen justice — an angel up there making sure that whoever harms with greed pays the price.

Since then, I’ve learned to stay away from bad people and connect only with good ones. And there are far more good people in this world than we realize — we just don’t hear about them, because part of being good is staying away from the spotlight, from control, judgment, and show-off.

Good people simply mind their own business — and quietly, they keep the world running.

(That’s the problem with democracy — but that’s a subject for another day.)

The School of Life

I started working at fifteen — washing dishes, cleaning stairways, playing piano for ballet students, selling flowers and fruit at junctions, and delivering newspapers at dawn — all just to buy my first computer. It cost more than a car, and nobody believed a kid should have one.

I eventually retired at thirty-six — and that was decades ago. Since then, I’ve dedicated my time not only to building new things but to sharing them. Everything I created, I shared — and in most cases, it worked better than I could have imagined.

And the funny thing is: since I started sharing instead of chasing, my wealth grew faster than ever. The more I gave, the more I received — just like that. That’s when I finally understood the timeless truth: “No one ever became poor by giving.”

When Enough Becomes Too Much

When I was poor — and even later, when I had some “show-off” money — I never shared what I earned with anyone. I worked hard for it. It was mine alone.

But when I finally reached the point where I had more than I — and my children, and their children — could ever spend, I began to ask myself an honest question: When does enough become too much?

What’s the point of accumulating more than I need — to buy more things I don’t need, to impress people I don’t even like?

Teaching to Fish Is Better Than Giving a Fish

So I started donating. Money.

And I quickly learned that most of it went to “management” and “overhead,” not to the people who actually needed help.

That’s when I decided to establish something different — a foundation that doesn’t give money, but gives people the power, the knowledge, and the tools to earn it.

I founded The Bach Foundation as a new kind of giving initiative — one that paves the road to success for others. One that teaches people to fish instead of handing them fish for lunch.

I don’t give the fish. I give the fishing stick. I don’t give temporary help — I create lifelong opportunity.

And here we are.

The Bach Foundation exists to prove that wealth is not what we take with us to the grave, but what we leave behind.

Because real wealth is not hidden in tax havens, loopholes, or political donations that feed waste and corruption.

Real wealth is proven when we share the gifts we were given — joyfully, and sometimes even dangerously generously— with those who need them most, just as I once did.

This is the only tax I am happy to pay — a tax not to enrich politicians, but to enrich people: those who need it, deserve it, and will use it to make the world a better place.

To lift them.

To arm them with knowledge.

To pass the torch forward.

That’s the circle I close.

I was born hungry. Society fed me.

Now giving back is my moral duty — to repay the debt to the society that once lifted me.

The projects I lead today focus on promoting peace and human comfort through technology, innovation, and education.

I use the knowledge, experience, and creativity I’ve gathered over a lifetime to empower people who need it, deserve it, and are driven to make the world better — by improving not just their own lives, but the lives of others.

This is not charity — no one needs to thank me.

I’m not doing anyone a favor — I simply satisfy myself by knowing that I’m not too old to lift others, and not too poor to keep everything I earn only for myself.

And I thank everyone who gives me the opportunity to rise by lifting others.