Transcription
There was this personal letter [snorts] and I opened it up. I read the letter and I just started crying my eyes out because the letter was from a man, a young man that I had loaned about $1,100 to when he needed it desperately. It was not, you know, I say a young man, he was my age and I didn't have a lot of money, but I just felt for him. He needed it. So, I loaned it to him and it had been 2 years and he was supposed to pay it back in, you know, 3 or 4 months. And I had called him like day after day, week after week, cuz I needed the money so bad. And he didn't even return my calls.
And then I'm reading this letter and it says, "I'm so sorry, Tony. You helped me when I needed it most and I have ignored you and cuz I'm embarrassed." But he said, "I've put the money together and here's a check with interest." And gave me a [music] check for $1,200. And I'm looking at this check. In those days, $1,200. I could live a month on $1,200. And so this feeling of joy and then these tears, this just uncontrollable tears pouring out of me, but they weren't tears of pain. They were tears of grace. This feeling like why did this happen right now when I needed it most? And I don't know the real reason why, but good thing about human beings, we get to choose the meaning. And I just thought, you know, this happened cuz I did what was right. I didn't do that thing for this little boy cuz I wanted the attention of his mom. I didn't do it for stars in my chart. I didn't do it for acknowledgement. I just did it cuz I knew it was right. And I hesitated. No hesitation. I didn't think about my needs when I had nothing left. I gave it all. And the next day it comes back. God, I know how many fold. $1,200 full versus $19. And I can tell you the joy that I felt. I can feel it again right now. Like I was there. It's that seared into my memory.
I can tell you there's never been a day. I faced unbelievably difficult times and I had companies in the early days where it looked like it were bankrupt and they didn't. I found a way. But it was so scary. But I never went back to that place. I've never gone back to that place where most people live. Scarcity. So, I tell you this because most people want to give when it's easy. That won't make you grow. I hear people tell me, "Oh, it's wonderful. You're providing 100 million meals a year, but I mean, you're rich. I'll do that when I'm rich. I fed two families when I had no money and then four and then eight. I've been doing this since I was 17." If you won't give a dime out of a dollar, you're not going to give a million out of 10 or 100 million out of a billion. There's no time to wait. If you really want your life to change, if you really want the breakthrough, find someone who needs it more and Give.