power of givingHow generous are you in life?

One of my favorite things to be is to be generous.  Whenever I clean out my closet, I’m always giving things away to friends.  It makes me happy to be generous. Whenever I go out to dinner, I enjoy treating people. I like taking care of people, probably because I didn’t feel a lot of that when I was growing up. My father was not a very generous person. As a matter of fact, he was really selfish. When I was growing up, we belonged to a country club, Fenway Golf Club in Scarsdale.

They had the best cheeseburger with bacon and French fries you ever ate. It was probably about $9 for a burger, which was extremely expensive in the 70’s.  I loved the country club. It was fun to go to. Swim, play tennis, run around.

My father was a selfish man. He was not very successful. Most of his life he took money from his parents, even as an adult. Whenever we were short paying bills, he would call his mom and get a check. He lived that way his entire life. He was not a hard worker. He went to his office every day and checked the stocks. If they made money, he made money. If he didn’t, he didn’t care, he’d rely on his parents.

I loved those damn cheeseburgers from Fenway Country Club. I don’t know what it was, the way they melted the cheese. Or the way the bacon was cooked. But those burgers were one of the greatest experiences that any teenager could have. On the days they didn’t have burgers, they used to have grilled cheese with bacon and tomato.

My father knew how much I loved the burgers, and the grilled cheese. Yet, he would say “Please eat lunch first before you come to the club. The food is expensive there.”

I learned from growing up in a selfish household the power of generosity and appreciation.  So as I got older and started making money, I became extremely generous. I enjoy being generous. I will always be a generous person, but some people I’ve been generous to have not been that appreciative.  That’s something I want to talk about today.

It’s the power of appreciation. A generous person is always going to be generous because that’s who they are.  They are generous from their heart.  They also do so because they love someone and appreciate them.  They do it because they want to be appreciative. It makes them happy to hear someone say thank you. It also makes them happy to see someone else happy.

We like making people happy when we’re generous. Appreciation is everything. I want to thank you for a really wonderful 2014.  For those of you that have purchased my products and believed in my message, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I want to thank you for learning from me, I want to thank you for being a wonderful customer and a client.

For those of you that have attended a boot camp, I would like to show my appreciation.  All of you have impacted my life in one way, shape, or form.  I appreciate every single one of you, and I’m glad that you chose me on your journey. I appreciate all the readers, whether you buy or not. I appreciate you coming here, reading, and participating in the comments.

I wish more of you would participate so I can read more comments from you. I appreciate my friends in life, I appreciate everybody, I appreciate the people who do little things for me every single day. Appreciation is key. So, today, I want you to make a list of all the people you appreciate in life. I want you to thank every one of them. Even if you’ve done it before, do it again.  Because as somebody who grew up not being able to eat Fenway cheeseburgers, all my dad had to do was allow me to eat them, and I would’ve shown the appreciation.

So I appreciate you, and I will always be a generous soul, because of the lessons I learned as a kid. Show appreciation. Even if you thank somebody a hundred times, it’s going to make them feel great. Do something generous today. Because getting back a smile or a thank you feels so wonderful.  Not just that, generosity is one of the biggest secrets to my success.