10. Teach and you shall receive: the power of giving
Both of my dads were teachers. My rich dad taught me a lesson I have carried all my life:
the necessity of being charitable or giving. My educated dad gave a lot of his time and
knowledge, but almost never gave away money.
He usually said that he would give when he had some extra money, but of course there was
rarely any extra.
My rich dad gave money as well as education. He believed firmly in tithing. “If you want
something, you first need to give,” he would always say. When he was short of money, he
gave money to his church or to his favorite charity.
If I could leave one single idea with you, it is that idea. Whenever you feel short or in need
of something, give what you want first and it will come back in buckets. That is true for
money, a smile, love, or friendship. I know it is often the last thing a person may want to do,
but it has always worked for me. I trust that the principle of reciprocity is true, and I give
what I want. I want money, so I give money, and it comes back in multiples. I want sales, so
I help someone else sell something, and sales come to me. I want contacts, and I help
someone else get contacts. Like magic, contacts come to me. I heard a saying years ago that
went: “God does not need to receive, but humans need to give.”
My rich dad would often say, “Poor people are more greedy than rich people.” He would
explain that if a person was rich, that person was providing something that other people
wanted. In my life, whenever I have felt needy or short of money or short of help, I simply
went out or found in my heart what I wanted, and decided to give it first. And when I gave, it
always came back.
It reminds me of the story of the guy sitting with firewood in his arms on a cold, freezing
night. He is yelling at the pot-bellied stove, “When you give me some heat, then I’ll put some
wood in you!” And when it comes to money, love, happiness, sales, and contacts, all one
needs to remember is to give first.
Often just the process of thinking of what I want, and how I could give that to someone else,
breaks free a torrent of bounty. Whenever I feel that people aren’t smiling at me, I simply
begin smiling and saying hello. Like magic, the next thing I know I’m surrounded by smiling
people. It is true that your world is only a mirror of you.
So that’s why I say, “Teach, and you shall receive.” I have found that the more I teach those
who want to learn, the more I learn. If you want to learn about money, teach it to someone
else. A torrent of new ideas and finer distinctions will come in.
There are times when I have given and nothing has come back, or what I have received is not
what I wanted. But upon closer inspection and soul searching, I was often giving to receive
in those instances, instead of giving for the joy that giving itself brings.
My dad taught teachers, and he became a master teacher. My rich dad always taught young
people his way of doing business. In retrospect, it was their generosity with what they knew
that made them smarter. There are powers in this world that are much smarter than we are.
You can get there on your own, but it’s easier with the help of the powers that be. You only
need to be generous with what you have.
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