The Power of Half
Kevin Salwen
 The teen-age Hannah had a desire to do something to fix the world’s wrongs, and make a difference. To do that, she had to convince her family—her father Kevin (a magazine start-up founder and former Wall Street Journal journalist and editor), her mother Joan (a former management consultant partner at Accenture, who had turned to teaching English), and her younger brother Joseph. The book details why and how the Salwen family sold their home in 2006. The home was a luxurious, 6,500-square-foot (600-square-meter), 1912 historic dream-house in Ansley Park, in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. It had Corinthian columns, five bedrooms, eight fireplaces, four ornate bathrooms, and a private elevator to Hannah's bedroom. The family down-graded, by replacing their home with a house that was half as expensive, and less than half the size. The Salwens donated the other half of the proceeds of the sale of their original home ($850,000) to a charity. They chose The Hunger Project, a charity that works to lessen the hunger of 30,000 rural villagers in over 30 villages in Ghana, and help the villagers move from poverty to self-reliance. The book describes the egalitarian, one-person-one-vote, consensus-driven process that the parents and their two children used–over a period of time–to reach the decision to give away half the value of their home, and how they chose the charity from a number of non-profit organizations that they considered. Before they embarked on the project, though the family members dined together they were otherwise each busy with their own activities, and drifting apart. The New York Times Book Review described the book by saying it details how the family "became happier with less—and urges others to do likewise." Kevin Salwen admitted: "We know that selling a house is goofy, and we recognize that most people can't do it." Asked if he was suggesting that other people follow suit, he answered: "We never encourage anybody to sell their house. That was just the thing that we had more than enough of. For others it may be time, or lattes, or iTunes downloads, or clothes in their closet. But everyone has more than enough of something.” He also clarified: We want our kids to be idealistic, but we also say, ‘Let’s not go too nuts here'. We’re not Mother Teresa. We’re not taking a vow of poverty, or giving away half of everything we own. We gave away half of one thing, which happened to be our house. Everybody can give away half of one thing, and put it to use. You’ll do a little bit of good for the world–and amazing things for your relationships.