One of the most powerful phrases I’ve ever read is displayed in the pavilion at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. It said, “Those who work for the good are as those who do the good.” Think about that for a minute because it’s truly powerful! There are few people in this world like Danny Thomas who founded St. Jude’s but there are millions around the world who can help the cause. What do you do to give to your community?
Zig Ziglar once said that the reason nothing can live in the Dead Sea is because it accepts water from rivers flowing into it but never lets anything out. Wealth works in much the same way. If you’re only interested in acquiring wealth and never give to the less fortunate you can bet that either the money will stop coming to you or all meaning will begin to drain from your life. Ziglar put it best when he said, “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” But what can you do? How can you make a difference?
The “I’m just one person” excuse is a common one. The truth is, one person can make a world of difference! Take St. Jude’s for example. It takes over $1.2 million dollars a day to run that children’s hospital! How is the majority of that money raised? It’s raised when someone goes to Chili’s and pays a dollar to color in a chili pepper or when someone goes to Target and says yes when the cashier asks for a donation. Millions of people who are only one person give what they can and the seemingly impossible gets accomplished.
What will your contribution be? What are you passionate about? Do you want to improve education levels? Feed the hungry? House the homeless? Whatever your cause is, go out and find an organization that champions it and join! If you’re too busy to give your time, think of how you can integrate that cause into your business. If you’re in sales, donate a portion of your commission to your cause. You could host a fundraiser in conjunction with your business. What a great PR opportunity that would be! Think of all the free press it could generate!
Even if you simply help your organization raise money it will make a world of difference. Do you think the doctors and scientists at St. Jude’s would be able to make medical breakthroughs and save lives if there was no one out there raising money for them? No way! Remember, when you work for the good you are as those who do the good. You may just see one of the most curious laws of life; the more you give, the more you seem to get.