Today's post is written by Lance Trebesch, CEO of TicketPrinting.com & Ticket River, which offers a variety of event products and ticketing services. After 19 years of Silicon Valley experience, Lance found the key to happiness is helping customers worldwide beautify and monetize their events with brilliant print products and event services.

In a recent Points of Light guest post, Samantha Gray asked a question: should community service be a graduation requirement? This question stuck with me for many days. On my drive to work, I'd find myself thinking about it and pondering the many arguments for or against. Instinctually, I felt against such an idea. After all, volunteerism should be about intent, not coercion. But then another idea struck me.

I wished my own school had employed such a requirement.

Perhaps if my school had forced me to volunteer, directly involving myself would come more naturally. I would have been better prepared to dedicate at least some of my energy to participating in, and then eventually leading, charitable groups and events. The longer I put off such involvement, the more difficult I found it to start.

Once I landed in Silicon Valley, free time became sparse. Startup companies might be small by nature, but they require large portions of time. With almost all of my energies focused on building technology companies, I found almost no time for anything else. It was a miracle to get home by 8 p.m. and have time for a sit-down dinner, let alone find time I could volunteer to others.

It wasn't until I rose to the level of executive that I realized a fundamental principle of community organization and philanthropy. None of the executives might have had any time of their own to volunteer, but the company still found ways to help charities and organizations that the executives believed in. We used the most helpful resource at our disposal: money. All charities and organizations need funding, and because we believed in some of them, we were able to play a part. The lesson stuck with me.

When I decided to launch my own business, I knew I wanted it to somehow benefit charities and organizations. Perhaps I wasn't ready to directly involve myself; creating and growing startups consumed much of my life and I couldn't see pulling myself away from those endeavors. But I could use my business acumen to help others perform the services that I so admired. I'm proud to help charities and organizations with their fundraising events by providing products and services that they need.

Would I feel better directly involving myself in planning and hosting these events? Perhaps. I do try to give to my favorite charities regularly, and I'm always seeking participatory events such as 5K runs.

But I have come to realize something after so many years building and running businesses. Charities and community organizations need many resources in order to pursue their goals. The direct involvement of people might be the most important, but there are other roles they need filled as well. I'm proud to use my own strengths to help them along the way.

Still, I can't help but think how my path might have differed had my high school required community service. It might have sent me into direct volunteerism, rather than into business. Then again, building and running businesses is a skill I possess, and I enjoy using that skill to its fullest. It's my personal strength, and it gives me a great joy to use it for causes that people feel passionately about.

What's your role in philanthropy and community organization? It doesn't necessarily have to be direct participatory involvement. We all have strengths, and we can use those strengths to make a difference.