Kindness…

Recently I saw a clip of Bill Gates at a lecture. He was sitting on stage alone at a lecture hall looking up at a large audience. Different than a performance as that’s a stage looking down at the audience. Why is that?

Anyway, someone asked him a question, “Is there anyone richer than you?”. He said one time he was in New York at the airport and this was long before he was rich and famous. He went to get a paper from the vendor at the stand. He reached for change in his pocket and didn’t have any. He put the paper back and started to leave and the vendor said, “Hey, you want a paper?”. Bill said he didn’t have any change but the vendor insisted he take the paper anyway.

A couple of months later there was Bill again at the same airport in front of the same vendor with the same amount of change. Again he set the paper down and again the vendor insisted he take it.

A number of years later after Bill Gates was, Bill Gates, he went to get a paper and the vendor was still there. Bill asked him, “Do you know who I am?”. The vendor said that he did know him and he was Bill Gates. Bill then asked him if he remembered him and the vendor said, “Yes, I gave you a paper…twice”.

Bill then told him he wanted to give him whatever he wanted. That his kindness at a time when he didn’t have much meant so much to him. “So name it”, Bill said, “I will get you whatever you want!”

The vendor replied, “How can you match what I gave you?”. Bill said that he wanted to repay him his kindness and give him whatever he wanted. The vendor replied, “But I gave to you out of nothing, you are giving to me out of abundance, you can’t match my gift”.

Bill then told the audience member…”that man is richer than me”

I am a rich man. Not because of dollars, far from it. I am rich because I have friends and family that are kind to me when I am in need of kindness. Kindness is what that man showed Bill. Just kindness.