June 3rd The Power of Giving
It's 11pm and I'm sitting outside in the rain producing content. Why? It's all because of the power of giving. I'm working hard right now on editing a video, publishing a podcast and this blog post; just so that I can give it away for free. Let's talk about it.
Yup Joe's and Joette's, I was sitting on my deck in the rain when I wrote this. The reason I went into such detail is because I need you to understand the power of giving it might not make sense right now but at the end of this post you will understand the true meaning. When you give value you will get paid back by the "universe". I put the word universe in quotation because I don't know what pays us back but something does. Some call it karma and we know what they say; What goes around comes around.
The power of giving is so important that Gary Vee wrote a book about called "Jab Jab Jab Right Hook". He talks about giving before asking in the world of business. This lesson can be applied in many aspects of life. Gary uses the word jab for giving and hooks for asking. It's not about giving then asking right away you have to give more than you ask. Just look at the title, there are three jabs before the right hook. If you're a long time reader you know how much I enjoy Gary Vaynerchuck because he gives all his content away for free on various platforms. He doesn't run ads on his videos or even try to sell some course. Yet when he releases a new book I am first inline to buy it, not only because I learn from it but because I want to support him. He gives away content for free so I am inclined to buy his books just to support him. He gets paid over a hundred thousand dollars to do keynotes, yet he uploads most of them online. He doesn't only upload clips of the speeches but the actual speeches in their entirety. I wasn't able to pay $1500 to attend Voice Con but guess what, he uploaded his personal speech from the evu. Why, because he knows not everyone can afford to attend the conference but everyone can benefit from it.
Some people reading this might have some doubts about taking giving advice from someone like Gary Vaynerchuck. They might be thinking that he can give all of this content away for free because he is worth millions of dollars. Well let's look at Evan Carmichael. You might not know who he is so let me give you some information about him. He is an entrepreneur who produces YouTube videos but with a twist. His videos are usually mashups of many videos. His videos are used to help people like myself obtain mentors. He does famous entrepreneurs' top ten rules for success. Yes he makes money off of YouTube ads but the main thing is he makes his content available to anyone who wants to watch. So ofcourse when I found out he wrote a book I bought it. He jabs more than he hooks.
Now some might say that I'm only talking about content creators. It's their job to give away content for free, which is true. So let's talk about Tony Robbins. He is the highest paid motivational speaker and is a household name. A ticket to his event ranges in price from a couple of thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Let's turn back time and look at young Tony Robbins, back when he was broke. He has a famous story of him visiting an all you can eat buffet. He saw a small boy and his mother having dinner. When the boy's mother went to the bathroom he walked up to the boy. Tony Robbins then took all the money out of his pocket and handed it to the boy. He gave the boy the money just so that theboy could take his mother out for dinner. Tony didn't do it for glory or recognition because he left the restaurant without waiting for a thank you from the boy or the mother. Who knows if this story is true so let me bring up one that can be proved. Tony Robbins' decided to donate all the proceeds from his book "Money Master the Game", to feed families across America. Why, because someone fed his family one time.
That's three examples of giving but it's not enough. Some might still be skeptical about the power of giving. You know who else knew the power of giving? John F. Kennedy! Yes the 35th president of the United States was a big believer in the power of giving. What is his most well known quote? "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country". That's a fancy way of saying to stop asking for something when you are not putting anything in. Most of us know this quote but until this moment not many knew the true meaning of this quote.
I know giving is hard especially when it comes to money. Some people donate money to charities because of the tax benefits but not true givers. They donate because they know the power of giving. Look at people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, they are going to donate almost all of their fortunes after they are gone. There's is no tax break or benefits for them but they know that their gift can affect the lives of millions of people. They give wholeheartedly because of the power of giving.
I have wrote a lot here and still haven't explained the real power of giving and there's a reason for that. The reason is that the power of giving is vast and unmeasurable. All of the knowledge that Sam Walton gave away in his book "Made in America" help create Amazon. Jeff Bezos attributes most of his success at business to that book. So basically that gift of knowledge has created thousands of jobs indirectly. Like I said in the beginning I don't know how it happens but giving leads to getting paid back. You don't always get paid back in money but in value. It just happens and that's what makes it so powerful.
I know this has been a long post but we are coming to a close. The power of giving has affected my life in some big ways. It's actually the reason why I launched this site because of something I received from someone. When I was in highschool I was able to meet Steve Harvey and he gave me some advice. His advice changed my life so much that it made me want me to give advice. I want someone to write about the way I inspired them to do great things. That is why I give away my content for free. I can write hundreds of eBooks and charge a dollar for each but I don't. I understand the power of giving and that I will be rewarded ten fold. Right now at the end of writing this post it's 1am. Two hours have passed and this is the fourth piece of content I have created today. I want to give so bad that I'm up at 1am typing this. Think about that.
This is actually the end of this post. I want to issue a challenge to you the reader. I want you to tryout the power of giving. You don't have to give money or advice. You can give something as simple as compliments. You can give more time to your loved ones. You can give love to those around you. Just do this for thirty days and let me know on the comments below your results.