Brendan argues that generosity—giving time, attention, and encouragement—is what makes people extraordinary. He shares how a high school mentor named Mrs. Ballew changed his life, and tells about giving a kid $20 and telling him to buy a book instead of candy.
June 14, 2015.
Mrs. Ballew.
Travis Shields.
$20.
Hey, guys, it's Brendan. And in this episode, I want to talk to you about what's going to make you feel the most fulfilled, the most excellent, and the most likely to achieve and succeed and accomplish your dreams? What will it be? Really? Think about it. What makes a great person these days? What really makes someone extraordinary? What makes somebody stand out? What's going to make you feel like you're contributing your best, like you're making your difference, and that you're always aspiring to be better human, but you're also achieving along the way. I would argue that that thing that makes us great is generosity. You know, the ability to be generous to others with your time, your attention, your mentorship, your care, your love, your patience, your forgiveness, your understanding, your spirit, your energy. When you are generous with who you are, people vibrate with that. They feel it, they sense it, and. And they're surprised by it. In a world today where no one will even take time to say hello or to call somebody or to show a measure of appreciation, when you do that, you stand out, but you also light up in your soul. You know, it changes everything when you're willing to be different, when you're willing to be generous with people, because really, you know, it's a very biblical thing. Ask and you shall receive. I also think that in terms of career and in terms of chasing your dreams, give and you shall receive. You know, give as much of your heart and your spirit and your life and your voice to this world, this time, this day, this person in front of you, because we only get one shot at this life, and today, it never happens. You don't see it. You know, I'm blessed to be here and shooting this video at my writer's villa where I come to write and now shoot these episodes. And I can share with you all this when I got here. And what I think about this, it came from a position of generosity, and it came from a position of generosity in my life. So long ago, when I had a high school mentor, Mrs. Ballew, who believed in me, she saw me take some pictures, and she said, you know, those pictures are pretty good. Even though, honestly, looking back, they were kind of crap. But she cheered me on anyway because I was putting effort, and she could see I was kind of passionate about it. And she said, you know, you could probably write and you could probably shoot these. Shoot these, the photographs. And I had. Nobody had ever really told me I had any potential before. And here's this person, for no reason, saying, you could probably do this. And I started Doing it. And she'd cheer me on and cheer me on, and her generosity of her time, her effort, her mentorship, she wasn't. There was no reason she did it. She just believed in me. But you know what? She believed in everybody around her. She was always cheering people on, always rewarding effort, always telling people to pursue their passions and believe in themselves. And I'm here today. I get to do this work with you. And millions of people see these videos and hear me online or watch my posts online or read my emails every single week. Because this woman who was a teacher at a simple high school in a simple town with a simple, beautiful, generous spirit, said, I believe in you, kid. And I hope you're telling some people that you believe in them. Is there somebody in your life who. Who deserves a little bit of appreciation, recognition, award, some love right now? Go be generous with them tonight. Pick up the phone and call them and be generous. Write them a generous note or generous email. You know what? We don't have enough of people cheering it on. I think about right before we shot this video, we went to lunch up the road here, and there's this cute little sort of local store. And we came out of the local store, and across the way, these little kids were set up shop outside of minivan, and they were selling iced tea, cookies, lemonade, you know, packets of strawberries. And their parents were posted up across the street in lawn chairs in the sun, just watching the kids, you know, make a couple bucks selling some lemonade and stuff. And my buddy Travis Shields here and I, we walked across the street and walked up to him. Travis shoots all my videos and walked up. We walked up to them and got a cookie and got a lemonade or iced tea for both of us and. And just cheering on the kids. Hey, good job. How many people stopped by and just talking about their thing and, you know, I think the bill came out to like, you know, three bucks or something like that. So I gave him. I said, do you have change? And I showed up a $20 bill. I said, you got change for this? And she said, oh, yeah, I can get change for that. So she started getting changed. I said, well, hold on. If I don't ask for this change and I give you this, will you use your money to go buy a book? Any book you want, but just go get a book so we can read some more. Keep reading. She's like, oh, yeah. And she could snatch that $20 out of my hand. And you know what? I know she'll probably go read and Then we just cheered her on and we left. And what was that? It wasn't being. I didn't ask her to buy my books, though. That'd be cool. No, I really was just saying read. And we were being generous to her in that situation. Here's a girl, she's just trying to make some money. She just set up a little lemonade stand. You know what? When you see. When you. I never ever drive by lemonade stand without pulling over. Going up, the kids cheering them on. Hey, good for you. You making some money. Hey, good for you. Are you having fun? Hey, did you make this? What'd you put in there? Hey, why is this better than everyone else? It's the best thing ever. And cheering them on. Be generous in your praise when others put effort forward in life and that will lead you down to the path of greatness. I hope you enjoyed this one. I look forward to see you in the next one. Please comment or post down below. Share this episode with your friends and your family. And as always, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, make your difference today. And do me one favor. Realize the greatest charge you're ever going to give to people is your positivity and your generosity. You deserve that there's someone in your life who also deserves it. So give that tonight and you'll start to experience what we call the charged life. Hey guys, it's Brendan. Did you like this episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, you can subscribe right here to my channel, which I hope you will, so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly basis to change your life. Second, you can get my brand new book for free by clicking the link right here. And third, you can also go to my website, sign up for my newsletter so I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, all updates on my events, new podcasts, and everything else that we don't do on this channel here. If you like to do that, just go ahead and click any of these buttons you see right here. Look forward to seeing it on the next video. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.
