Do you get more when you give more? I believe so, yes.

Our values are key to designing our lives, to becoming the people we want to be, to creating the life we want. If we live our values, it shows. For instance, my values are generosity and teaching. So, I give all of my material away on my website. You can copy, share, download, and duplicate it, it’s all free. In return for giving, I get more wonderful people in my life, more amazing experiences, more than I ever could have imagined. Counterintuitive yes, and absolutely true in my experience.

I have an interesting story about generosity that I’d like to share with you. When I was young, there was a program in Kentucky, where I grew up, called the March of Dimes Bread Drive. My high school was one of the poorer schools in the area, and I was put in charge of the bread drive for my area.

We were instructed to knock on doors in our neighborhood. When someone answered the door, we were to ask them, “Would you make a donation?” If the person made a donation, then we were to give them a loaf of bread.

I told my team, “We’re going to do something different. We’re going to give them the bread. Then we’ll tell them, “If you want or are able to make a donation that would be nice, if not that’s okay too. Either way, we’re going to give you the loaf of bread.”

You see, to me, it was demeaning to try to bribe someone with a loaf of bread. If they can give you something back for it, great. But, maybe they can’t right then, maybe they can’t afford it, maybe they aren’t capable of it. That’s okay too.

It was during that March of Dimes Bread Drive that I really started to live the philosophy of giving.

It’s been a good philosophy of life for me to just “give people the bread.”  And, in Valley Station, Kentucky those many years ago, my little March of Dimes Bread Drive team ended up raising more money than any other team in the county!

Today, I’m giving the bread away again with my legacy project 15 Coaches. With 15 Coaches, I am going to teach 15 people everything I know, for free! This is my chance to honor the many wonderful teachers and heroes that I have had over the years and to give to others as they gave to me.