Headline, August 11 2026/ SOUL : ''' GREAT HUMANS GROSS '''

SOUL : 

''' GREAT HUMANS GROSS '''

!WOW! HAS A SOUL : THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY is the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world. And to honour, The NYT is the lifelong trustee of !WOW!.

WELCOME to all of Humanity. Welcome to everybody to join !WOW! - which is for every subject in the world. And The Global Founder Framers carry a VETO.

SELL the company for millions and millions of dollars. He's giving it away instead. !WOW! rises to give esteemed Mr. Edie Smith Jr. a standing ovation and honour him for his splendid and ever inspiring  gesture for Mankind.

BACK IN 1968 - EDIE SMITH JR. - bought a fledgling boat maker based in Greenville, N.C. It was a risky move. The company, Grady-White Boats, was in deathly trouble.

But Mr. Smith turned it around and now the maker of high-end recreational fishing boats designed for coastal waters pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

Along the way, Mr. Smith kept full control of the company, never taking on outside investors or selling stock to the public.

NOW, Mr. Smith, who is 83, has made one last big move. He renounced a potential $400 million payday and pledged all of Grady-White's future profits to charity.

'' God has really blessed me to put me in a position to give away the vast majority of my net worth,'' he said in an interview.

'' I don't need a 200-foot yacht or to spend the winters in the Mediterranean. I'm really happy here in eastern North Carolina.

At a time when billionaires are shunning the Giving Pledge and artificial intelligence start-ups are making thousands of new millionaires, Mr. Smith's forfeiture of wealth stands out as an act of principled rebellion.

He said he was inspired by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, who gave away his stock and set up a nonprofit organization to distribute the outdoor apparel company's profits in 2022.

In recent weeks, he transferred Grady-White's voting stock, which is a small percentage of the company's overall shares, to a legal entity known as a purpose trust.

The trust will hold these shares in perpetuity, ensuring that Grady-White remains independent and can never be sold - and continues to operate in accordance with Mr. Smith's values, including profit-sharing.

The remainder of the company's shares, which do not have voting rights, are being transferred to a newly created 501 [c] [4] nonprofit organization.

The trust and the nonprofit will be run by independent boards that do not include Mr. Smith. 

He will stay on as chief executive emeritus and take an annual salary.

Grady-White will distribute tens of millions in annual profits not reinvested in the company to the nonprofit organization which will give the money away to causes including conservation, health care and education.

Most successful companies take on investors, are acquired or sell shares through the initial public offering. The number of companies that have transferred their ownerships to purpose trusts is minuscule - just 81.

But that number has grown from 7 in 2018, according to Purpose Owned, a consultancy that helped  Grady-White structure the transaction, with 15 announced this year.

'' For decades, we have taught founders they have only two options : Sell out, or let the investors slowly take the wheel,'' said Eric Ries, an entrepreneur and author who studies alternate forms of corporate governance.

'' These transactions show a third way is possible : an enduring company built around a long-term mission.''

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Great Humans, Great Givings, Great Honours, continues. !WOW! thanks David Gelles.

With most respectful dedication to all the Leaders of the world, Successful Businessmen, the Global Founder Framers of The World Students Society, Parents and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See You all prepare for the great '' Constitutional Democratic Convention '' on !WOW! : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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