A wise man once told me that if your main purpose is the pursuit of money, sadly you will never find it. I believe that statement to be so simple, yet so true. In essence, it means that if your goal is solely to become wealthy, you will have a long, uphill battle that will usually end in failure.

Last week was a reflective one for all of us as we neared the tenth anniversary of 9/11. I personally am slowly healing, though never fully, and not in a way that allows me to forget or become less angry. Just in a way that finally is allowing me to turn the grief around in a positive manner.

I recently decided to make a real effort to step up my personal charitable contributions and to develop a program in the office to do the same, getting the staff and patients on board so we can really make a difference. When you give back, good things will happen in your life.

It's really funny how things happen sometimes. All of these thoughts of wanting to help out a cause and the approach of 9/11 and not pursuing money can be confusing. Clarity on this complex subject can be elusive until that one event, sometimes seemingly insignificant, occurs and the entire cluster of ideas just comes into focus.

For me it came in the form of a high school classmate suffering a rapid decline from the effects of Multiple Sclerosis. He arrived for his appointment and immediately I saw through the window that his condition was very serious. I went out to greet him and helped him into the office. We spoke more than treated as his condition would not allow much in the way of dentistry. I helped him out and said a heartfelt goodbye.

I rushed back into the office and sat at my computer. I Googled the local MS society and BAM, everything cleared up in an instant. The next charitable event was set to take place on 9/11 in Southampton on Long island. I picked up the phone and sponsored a rider. I was invited to watch the riders arrive at the finish and enjoy the day and barbeque.

So, I loaded up the car, took the hour drive and had a great day. Each group of riders was escorted by a member of the Blue Knights motorcycle club along the 150-mile, 2-day course. The final mile there was a police escort to the finish to the cheers of many well wishers.

So now the stage is set. The real money that these organizations need is from the participants and their sponsors. So with the huge impact of social media, it should be simple to turn a dental office into a hub for getting the word out, getting sponsorship and getting the job done. I will keep you posted. I want to create a model that can be used by offices to generate charitable contributions, have fun, increase morale and make a difference.

Stop looking for it and start doing it. Hey, that may just become my motto. I am starting by suggesting to all of the offices that send Christmas gifts to use that money to contribute to a good cause instead. We have to start somewhere.