Giving Back: A Business Owner's Experience
Giving Back: A Business Owner’s Experience
“You saved my life,” the woman said to me with tears in her eyes.
Well, I didn’t actually save her life but with 4 kids and a mother to financially take care of, what I did helped her. All I did was spend one Saturday morning volunteering at “Share the Hope” hosted by a local church to use my gifts as a chiropractor to help those who can’t afford care.
The adjustment I gave this woman instantly took away chronic pain in her neck that was causing her to take off work and not get enough sleep. She looked exhausted and beat down before I saw her and afterwards she couldn’t stop smiling. “It’s gone, it’s completely gone,” she kept saying as she moved her neck in every direction. I gave her my business card and told her that I would treat her, her children and her mother anytime they needed it for free.
I can’t find words to explain the feeling I got seeing her so happy and emotional, knowing that I was able to do something for her that would make such a big difference in her life. All it cost me was my time.
So what does this have to do about business? A lot, actually. Success in business usually is more about selling yourself not your service or product. The sales come naturally if people know you are a great person and like you. It is never my reasoning, but I can’t count the number of new patient referrals I have received from people that I have seen for free. What you give out always comes back in so many different ways.
So my question to you is….what gift do you have that you can give back?
If you are good at computers, help a single mother learn skills that will help her get a better job. If you are a great cook, bring a home cooked meal to a friend that just had a baby or is sick. If you are a carpenter, find a local charity that helps build houses for those in need. Opportunities are out there, everywhere. Sometimes it’s as simple as letting someone go ahead of you at the grocery store when they only have two items or giving someone a compliment that will brighten their entire day!
It’s easy for all of us to get so caught up in our work, so focused on making money….don’t get me wrong, making a good living is important for many reasons but true good living is about so much more. I have never turned down treating a patient due to lack of ability to pay. All I ask in return is that they go do something nice for someone else. Giving back is the way I live my life and I am a happier person for it.
I will never forget the look of thanks in that woman’s eyes that day. That look paid me in something way more valuable than money, something that can never be bought. I encourage you to go find your “look of thanks” in someone’s eye….I promise you will not be disappointed.
“You saved my life,” the woman said to me with tears in her eyes.
Well, I didn’t actually save her life but with 4 kids and a mother to financially take care of, what I did helped her. All I did was spend one Saturday morning volunteering at “Share the Hope” hosted by a local church to use my gifts as a chiropractor to help those who can’t afford care.
The adjustment I gave this woman instantly took away chronic pain in her neck that was causing her to take off work and not get enough sleep. She looked exhausted and beat down before I saw her and afterwards she couldn’t stop smiling. “It’s gone, it’s completely gone,” she kept saying as she moved her neck in every direction. I gave her my business card and told her that I would treat her, her children and her mother anytime they needed it for free.
I can’t find words to explain the feeling I got seeing her so happy and emotional, knowing that I was able to do something for her that would make such a big difference in her life. All it cost me was my time.
So what does this have to do about business? A lot, actually. Success in business usually is more about selling yourself not your service or product. The sales come naturally if people know you are a great person and like you. It is never my reasoning, but I can’t count the number of new patient referrals I have received from people that I have seen for free. What you give out always comes back in so many different ways.
So my question to you is….what gift do you have that you can give back?
If you are good at computers, help a single mother learn skills that will help her get a better job. If you are a great cook, bring a home cooked meal to a friend that just had a baby or is sick. If you are a carpenter, find a local charity that helps build houses for those in need. Opportunities are out there, everywhere. Sometimes it’s as simple as letting someone go ahead of you at the grocery store when they only have two items or giving someone a compliment that will brighten their entire day!
It’s easy for all of us to get so caught up in our work, so focused on making money….don’t get me wrong, making a good living is important for many reasons but true good living is about so much more. I have never turned down treating a patient due to lack of ability to pay. All I ask in return is that they go do something nice for someone else. Giving back is the way I live my life and I am a happier person for it.
I will never forget the look of thanks in that woman’s eyes that day. That look paid me in something way more valuable than money, something that can never be bought. I encourage you to go find your “look of thanks” in someone’s eye….I promise you will not be disappointed.
