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 ?
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