After reading The Go-Giver, P.J. from Florida felt compelled to share with us the following story . . . and we’re glad she did!
I sincerely want to thank you for the gift of The Go-Giver. I saw myself clearly in Deborah Davenport. I’m exactly where she was, in my early stages of a real estate career and in a new stage in my life.
I’d like to share a true story of a Go-Giver that happened many years ago, but still touches my soul and even today makes me a little teary.
In the early eighties, my ex-husband Bob worked in a family-owned foundry business in New Jersey. One year the family went on vacation, and the night watchman lit a kerosene lamp that burned the foundry’s entire production area to the ground. They were out of business.
While they rebuilt the place, Bob called on other foundries to job their work out. One man at one particular foundry befriended Bob and gave much more in value for no payment at all: he gave Bob’s orders priority in production, and because of him, the foundry was able to stay in business while it was being rebuilt.
Several years passed, and Bob’s friend, the man who had been so helpful, called to tell Bob that he had lost his job. Without being asked, Bob put this man and his family on the foundry health care rolls and kept them there permanently — until one day, when Bob received another phone call from the man.
“Bob,” he said, “this is your friend. I have just been appointed officer of another company, and you are my first phone call. We have some business to do together, my friend.” And he proceeded to send all the new company’s work over to Bob’s foundry, and many huge orders followed.
Even though this all happened more than 25 years ago, I will never forget it.
In an after-note, PJ mentioned to me that she dedicates this story as a tribute to her beloved late father-in-law, “who lived his life through these principles.”