The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

JUST A MOMENT: THE DEAL THAT WASN’T

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THE DEAL THAT WASN’T.            .            .

Let’s just be really honest: W E  don’t make deals unless they somehow profit us; unless we benefit.  We rarely even make a deal where it’s even well, EVEN:

I’ll give you this you give me that, and we both win and valued to both of us.

EVEN if monetarily it doesn’t equal out, a few of us, if not any of us, would actually make a deal where we don’t benefit, in fact, where we actually lose and just don’t come out on the short end of the stick,  we don’t even get the stick or the twig, and forget about even the shadow of a tree that it came from.

Do you make that deal? Wonder if it really would change the world?  Wonder if it would really change a person? Maybe once, maybe once in a while but not ongoing? Here’s the real kicker:  When we don’t make that deal, we really do come out on the short end of that jagged stick;

SO WHAT SAY YOU?

Are you feeling lucky?  

Do you want to make a deal or

just not the one I’m offering?
or.                .               .
WE DON’T

Anthem’D U P

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This Cubs Fan With Down Syndrome

Sang The National Anthem at Wrigley

                       And It’s Amazing

Do you.     .     .     ?

I usually get a huge lump in my throat when I hear the National Anthem.     .     .

followed very closely by tears in my eyes;

It just gets me

and I kind of really like being

G          O          T          T          E          N.             .             .

but this rendition did both at the same time and a little more:

After raising more than $37,000 for Special Olympics Illinois, Cubs fan Stefan Xidas, who has Down syndrome, had his wish granted last Monday night before the Cubs game against the Milwaukee Brewers. In front of a crowd of roughly 38,000 fans, he finally got the chance to sing the national anthem at Wrigley Field. And it was just a touching moment for Stefan and for everyone involved.

“It’s    the    best    moment    I    could    ever    imagine,”

Stefan said before he took the field to sing the anthem in front of the crowd.

stefan1

How did Stefan get this opportunity? It started last month when his two childhood friends, Tommy Molitor and John Rosinski, helped him create a GoFundMe page to collect donations for Special Olympics Illinois.

asd

He wrote a letter  to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts on the fundraising page, Xidas who is 30 years old wrote:

I’d  like  to  make  a  deal  with  Tom  Ricketts, the  owner  of the  Chicago  Cubs. If  I’m  able  to  raise  $5,000  for  the Special  Olympics  Organization,  Tom  Ricketts  will  let  me  sing  the  National  Anthem  at  a  Cubs  game.

What an amazing moment.          .          .

This is not a political statement about standing/kneeling, bowing, or saluting during the National Anthem so much as it is about

DEALING      FOR      A      MOMENT

that  creates  unforgettable

O  T  H  E  R

M O M E N T S.          .          .

a tsunami like ripple

that causes other rippled

tsunamis

that beat upon other shores

for attention.          .          .

not for a temporary gain or a twinkling of fame

but for a perpetual moment.          .          .

and  on

THAT  NOTE,

Thank you, Stefan.
T       H       A       N       K          Y       O       U  

What’s The Deal?

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WHAT’S   THE   DEAL ?

That’s not usually the question I ask when I’m talking to a group about

C       O       M        P       A       S       S       I       O       N

The question I usually ask is,

WHO   WOULD   LIKE   TO   MAKE   A    DEAL ?

I tell them the story of early September, 2010 when I was at a National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Conference.  I had just done a presentation on

DID   YOU   HEAR   WHAT   I   DIDN’T   SAY?

The Conference was being held at the Omni Hotel. . .the very same place that houses

C N N

The place is an underground city that not only has all of the CNN offices and TV sets, but it has it’s own Mall/Shopping Center, Food Center.

Following my talk, I went down to the underground and bought a Grande Latte from Starbucks and a Sandwich from a local Sandwich shop and went into the middle of this mass of humanity to eat/drink lunch, check email, text, tweet and facebook my lunch hour away.

Maybe not all that suddenly, there was a man who was standing right beside my table who was wearing everything he owned–on a sunny, hot, humid day in Atlanta, GA.

He extended his hand to me to shake and introduced himself,

“Hello, I’m Frank and I would like to make a deal with you. . .I’d like to give you a penny for a 10-dollar bill.”

I, literally chuckled at him as I shook his hand and told him that my name was Chuck.

When I saw that his offer was 1000% sincere, I stood up and told him that I didn’t think we had to make that deal and reached down behind him and gave him a $10 bill that looked as if he had dropped  10-bucks.

We both knew. . .

“Sir, you’d still do me an honor by taking my penny.”

I took it. . .we shook hands again. . .he turned and left and I never saw him again for the next two days I was there.  I still don’t know where he came from or how he got into the middle of this huge group of hungry people.

What     haunts     me

is

W   H   Y       M    E?

What did he see in me. . .among that crowd of people. . .what did he see in me that he could trust I wouldn’t laugh or chastise, or ignore, or call Security?

Now. . .after all of these years. . .

I’m now having a different haunting.

Within the past two weeks, I have given this talk and gotten a response that I have never received before, having given this nearly a hundred of times. . .

When I ask the group if anyone has a penny and an individual holds one up; I then ask if they would trade me the penny for a 10-dollar bill, knowing that I am NOT going to give them back the penny and I DO NOT WANT OR WILL TAKE THE 10-DOLLAR BILL back.

Here’s the

H     A     U     N     T:

Over the past two presentations I’ve given this illustration I have had three people turn me down. . .

THEY

actually admitted, in front of their peers, that they could not make the deal and give me their penny for the 10-bill.

W        O        W

Usually, in the past, before these  haunting  two incidences, I would ask:

WHO   GOT   THE   BETTER   OF   THAT    DEAL?

The group response almost always was:

“FRANK   DID”

After these two occurrences,

I’m thinking these three individuals did.

Could it be that they didn’t want to be seen as being on the Wrong End of a Great Deal?

One lady told me, she didn’t want to part with her penny;

The other two young ladies in Class told me that they could not make the deal 

maybe because of a cultural difference that forbade them to accept something of greater value than they were able to share. . .

Hmmmmmm. . .an unfair exchange nixing the deal.

I thanked them for giving me

a n o t h e r    s t o r y

to share.

One that doesn’t have me asking:

WHO  GOT  THE  BETTER  OF  THIS  DEAL?

b  u  t

WHAT    IS    THE    DEAL ?

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man