Like most people, I was brought up to look upon life as a process of getting
It was not until in my late thirties that I made this important discovery
giving-away makes life so much more exciting
You need not worry if you lack money
This is how I experimented with giving-away
If an idea for improving the window display of a neighborhood store flashes to me
I step in and make the suggestion to the storekeeper
One discovery I made about giving-away is that
it is almost impossible to give away anything in this world
without getting something back
though the return often comes in an unexpected form
One Sunday morning the local post office delivered
an important special delivery letter to my home
though it was addressed to me at my office
I wrote the postmaster a note of appreciation
More than a year later I needed a post-office box
for a new business I was starting
I was told at the window that there were no boxes left
and that my name would have to go on a long waiting list
As I was about to leave, the postmaster appeared in the doorway
He had overheard our conversation
Wasn’t it you that wrote us that letter a year ago
about delivering a special delivery to your home
I said yes. “Well, you certainly are going to have a box in this post office
if we have to make one for you. You don’t know what a letter like that means to us
We usually get nothing but complaints