I just wrote an original article for a local magazine (Austin All Natural) about giving. It will appear in their December issue. As “luck” would have it, I just received this email, shared here with the author’s permission:
“Hey Joe, hope this email finds you doing well. I just had to write you and give you a quick testimonial. Remember I had sent you the leather bags and in turn you sent me all your books. They are awesome. So here’s my story.
“I had just finished reading your book “The Greatest Money Making Secret in History” and I was thinking about how much I liked giving things away. But I currently really wasn’t giving money, services, etc. to anyone on a regular basis. So I was pondering who in my life I wanted to give to.
“Then I remembered a homeless gentleman that hungout a few blocks from my apartment. Now generally speaking I’m not in favor of homeless people hanging out on corners with their little signs asking for money. But this guy was different. He was handwriting poems that he made up each day. I found it fascinating and I loved the fact that he was using his brain and at least offering people something of value and all he was asking was a quarter for a poem!
“I would typically see this guy 3 times a week. So I started buying a poem from him every time I saw him. But I was giving him a 20 dollar bill each time. It made me feel great and of course I could afford it.
“In your book we were told to give what we were comfortable with and I was. It cracked me up because he never remembered me but each time I drove off I could see him in the rear view mirror jump up and down in delite. On top of that I really liked his poems!
“This went on for a couple of weeks and in the mean time I was getting ready for a big move. I just recently moved from Los Angeles to Denver and I was really dreading the move, not only from a monetary standpoint but also mental. I knew it was going to be costly to move and I really didn’t know where I was going to get that much free cash flow for my move.
“Well low and behold two weeks after I starting giving as instructed in the book I had Macy’s North (the retail store) which is comprised of 10 of their stores on the east coast find my website out of the blue and they ended up placing a $12,000 wholesale order of which I profited over $5,000.
“Now consider this, I do both retail and wholesale orders but even my wholesale order on average are around $300 per order. NEVER, NEVER have I had one of this size. It paid for my entire move. I just can’t think of any other reason than the Power of Giving that I was given this order in return. Joe, it works. It really works.”
— Rob www.robdiamond.net for belt buckles and belts!
Well done, Rob.
What have you given today?
Ao Akua,
joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — Money is only one thing you can give.
11 Comments
My neighbor has just given birth to a baby boy last Friday and I bought a huge hamper for her right after I came back from another town yesterday.
I write an article everyday on the personal development subject (mainly focus on Law of Attraction and Mind Power) and post it on my blog.
What I get from there is it keeps me motivated and maintain my high energy level. It makes me think of at least a way to motivate myself and others each and every day. 🙂
Thanks for that, Joe- oddly enough, most of the reasons why I want to make more money (besides the fact that I’m a grad student) is to be able to give more away. When I see giving reports on our church congregation and see that 7 out of 400 families are able to give $200 or more per week to the church, I think, “THAT’s what I want to do”- perhaps not all to the church, but to different charitable places/organizations. And I will do it!
Thanks to you and Pat O’Bryan, I am now well on my way to creating a book and website that will have practical information on becoming “That kind of person”- the one who takes workouts, healthy eating, and a lack of obesity for granted. http://www.thathealthyperson.com will be the next big thing in combating the obesity epidemic!
Rob — Congratulations! That’s a very inspirational story and a wonderful reminder about giving and engaging the flow. Frank
HA! Great story! Thanks for posting this. Wow. I especially liked your last question: WHAT HAVE YOU GIVEN TODAY? So far I have given my time and attention to a few people, and now I just feel so energetically alive, just thinking about what I could give to someone today. I’m gonna start now. I want to make this a daily practice: of giving.
Thanks for the reminder!
What have I given today?
This whole power of giving, law of attraction, zero limits stuff is getting really weird…I just spent the day looking for leads for our organic gift basket business then stumbled upon your blog entry. We’ve given away many of our organic baskets ‘just because’ and we really are starting to see it come back around to us in the form of orders. It’s like a boomerang…and you’re a wonderful life teacher.
Thank you.
Hi Joe,
Great post. Thanks!
I want to add that its also about giving what you hold dear and cling to.
What is that for most people?
MONEY!
But if you are really rich, and writing a $1000 cheque comes very easily, then there are other things to give.
These include your time, energy, efforts, knowledge, skills etc and also the material things.
As a Muslim we are also taught three additional principles to giving:
1) Give in secret…so that you dont do it to get attention
2) Give with no expectation of return…do it for the sake of your Creator
3) Give during the times when you feal least generous…..this opens the flow of blessings.
Peace and God bless,
Koorosh
Well I don’t have enough fingers I am helping raise two grandgirls and their mom which is a quadriplegic. We are two grandmothers paternal and maternal that decided to move in together to do this plus the maternal grandmother has ill parents so we were force to move out of our wonderful area hill country in Austin I also help with that and once they are gone we plan to move back south maybe Wimberly there is a great charter school there that we would love our grandchildren to attend and ratio is great, plus my eight year grandaughter is an artist and what a great place to be. We also buy at our local crises center and pick up a family or two during holidays or just because. We love giving we have wonderful grandchildren and sometimes you have move out your confort zone but it hasn’t been all that bad the pine trees in East Texas are beautiful. Thank you Joe for sharing with us we have alot of your books on audio.
I love you and Thank you
I love it! I’m still laughing at the visual of him not recognizing you & doing the happy dance!! 😆 Makes my heart warm & fuzzy, thank you!
Namaste,
Emily
Hi Ao Akua,
One of the things I noticed about giving is that “rich” people don’t seem to have a problem with it while “poor” people often do. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Oprah are just three famous examples. Could it be that they are rich because they are so generous? I think so.
You are an inspiration to me, Ao Akua.
AJ
Dear Joe, this story reminded me of my own experiences with local panhadlers. Here is one. It happened about 15 years ago. I was walking in San Francisco downtown and passed a homeless woman with lesions on her face. I remeber i thougth she looked like she might be sick with AIDS. At that time San Francisco was overwhelmed with homeless people who were getting quite aggressive, to the point that our tourism had begun to drop. I seldom gave them money, but i did when moved by intuition. The woman with lesions on her face walked on by with her hand outstretched. I let her pass by. Afterwards i regretted not giving her any money and hoped to see her again. But she seemed to have vanished. I began sending her energy in my meditations,hoping that she would get better. But she never showed up again and became convinced that she had died. A couple of years later i was having dinner at a local restaurant. Afterwards, on the way to my car i suddenly saw that woman again. The lesions were gone. But she was still panhadling, and she still looked homeless. I can’t describe how happy i was to see her! “How are you?” I almost creied out. “Are you well?”. She was surprised but responded warmly. I learned that her name was Tara. I gave her $20, told her my name, wished her well. So she was alive after all. Turned out she didn’t have AIDS,she just plucked at her face until there were sores everywhere, unable to stop. From that moment on and for the next 8 -10 years i would see her regularly. It was $20 every time. She ran to my car. We chatted in the street. My friends raised their eye brows. I told them the story…
Then we moved to NewYork and lived there for over a year. When we returned, she has disappeared. I never saw her again. I hope she is alive somewhere, but I am afraid she didn’t make it. I may never know.
What’s the moral of this story? I don’t know if there is one. Dalai Lama’s religion is kindness. Tara got a little money from me now and then, that’s true, but what mattered most to her was that i saw her as person, a human being just like me and you. She knew my husband, she met my son…we were buddies in some way that has nothing to do with convention. Her gift to me was the opportunity to be kind. A better gift is hard to find.
Hi there Joe :grin:, I noticed at the bookstore the other day that even Bill Clinton has a book out on giving. Maybe the gratitude genie is working overtime:lol:
happy thoughts , Ellie