What really impacted me from last night wasn’t the pin recognition, it wasn’t the training, it wasn’t the plan, it was Mike talking about how they give back on a constant basis.  That struck me big time because Lindsay and I feel the same way and we want to make sure we give back now and give back more when we make even more money.  There are many amazing things you can do with money, and that doesn’t make it evil.  Its what you do with it and we plan to do some pretty cool and impactful things even with what we have now.  I’ve already talked about some smaller things we’ve done on “Seeing Our Donation in Action”, and my current campaign for Easter Seals on my Drop Zone Page.  However I’m talking about doing some impactful things to people in need on a regular basis and not just waiting for certain organizations to do their fundraising drives.

See what I love about getting around the people we get to hang around with is that you start to open your mind to the possibilities that are out there.  The people I hang around with at work or even some of my closest friends don’t think about this kind of stuff.  Things like giving back to families that are unfortunate or kids that go without new clothes, underwear or shoes for years.  I know my current job allows me to live comfortable but doesn’t allow me to write a $5,000 cheque to needy family to put new clothes on their kids and get them some much needed supplies/food/etc… I know that when people are in debt themselves they rarely will look outwards and be more giving.  They will put any extra money on debt or just spend it frivolously. I’m really not doing justice to what I heard last night but we are going to impact communities with what we are building and that is worth fighting for and that is worth putting in the work to make this amazing business opportunity work. 

I’ve always been saying here that my main focus is my family and that’s why we build this business, but I’ve been adding in the giving back as a very very close second and that is a primary reason why we build this now.  Say what you will about his business, be it a “scam”, “pyramid scheme” (which are illegal by the way and 52 year old companies that make 9.2 Billion don’t get away with illegal operations in over 82 countries and partner with companies like Best Buy, Sears, and the Detroit Red Wings. I think their lawyers did more research about this company then what you did before joining with Amway.  Come on this isn’t the 70’s, take your head out of your…), or whatever else you want to say, my reason for building this far out weights your negative attitude towards what we do.  I’m building this to give back and help people achieve what it is they want to, be it giving back or whatever reason they want.  That is powerful and nobody can steal that away from us.

The thing with this is people that are in debt living paycheck to paycheck would never even dream of something like this because there is no way to achieve it.  When you are in debt (whatever it is, credit, home, car, LOC) you’d take that large amount of money and put it on debt.  You wouldn’t think I’d love to do something nice for my parents for everything they’ve done for me and buy them a vehicle.  When you live debt free there are so many options that open up.

There are other examples of this starting to come up in our organization where people are giving back, paying it forward, spoiling parents, etc… and I cannot wait until we are in that position where we can actually think about it and do it if we so choose.  I have a few ideas in mind on what I want to do to give back to my parents.  Why?  Because my parents are the best damn parents in the world.  They sacrificed so much of their time, energy and money so that we could live the best life possible when we were growing up.  We were allowed to play whatever sport we wanted to and of course the main sport in our household was hockey.  We didn’t play just any hockey we played Rep hockey which is twice to three times if not more expensive then house league hockey.  Thousands of dollars a year.  My parents sacrificed a lot of things so that we could play hockey, they sacrificed nice new vehicles, they sacrificed many wedding anniversaries by driving past each other while my brother goes one way to hockey and I go the other way.  They sacrificed their time and money so that we could live whatever life we wanted to.  Do my parents deserve to be spoiled?  YOUR DAMN RIGHT THEY DO! Could I even think about doing that working my current job being in debt? NO.  So we’ve made a change to make that happen so we can honor our parents and give back to them for all the sacrifices they made.

I’m pumped at the limitless possibilities that will be happening in the next few years for us and for what we can do with our family.