From Compassion to Clarity: Navigating the World of Generosity

Watch the episode here:

• Discover the profound impact of generosity on decision-making.
• Learn from Rick’s personal experiences as an employer-driven by compassion.
• Understand the balance between helping others and ensuring it’s done right.
• Gain insights into the pitfalls of making choices purely out of compassion.
• Explore the true essence of generosity and its role in our lives

Hey, what’s shakin’!? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. I’m excited to have you here today because this is going to be an episode that’s going to help a lot of people. And that’s why I’m also going to ask you to share this out with at least three people today because today we’re going to be talking about generosity, and the right reasons to do something for someone else. Okay. And I’m going to tell you some stories about how I have used this a lot in my life because I’m a really generous person. And I have a huge heart. And I love being able to do things for other people because I feel that one of the reasons why I’m doing so well in life, financially, physically, mentally, is because I’m constantly giving to everybody else. This is just something if you want to call it karma, the universe, whatever, it always circles back around to you. And that’s the amazing part. Because when you are able to do little things for other people, then it’s like, Hey, you’re entrusted to do a lot more. For a lot of people, it’s pretty amazing how this cycle works, because then it’s like you keep re-fulfilling yourself, as far as your purpose because the only reason we’re on this planet is to help other people, is to be a society is to be a culture is to continue to move forward, together with everybody in some sort of unity. 

And generosity plays a big role in that, you know, just doing nice things for other people. I’ve told multiple stories on here about different ways to do that. And I’m going to talk to you about one specifically today. And it’s about me, because this is something that I realized the other day in a training course that I was in about myself. And I asked the question because the woman who’s teaching the course is a psychologist who has a master’s in psychology. Psychology is also an internationally certified NLP Master Practitioner, just an amazing woman, you know, she’s trained some of the greatest people out there that have all these interventions and breakthroughs for people. And I started recognizing something and I’m like, here’s a scenario that has taken place in my life as an employer, because I’ve been an employer for many, many years now, creating jobs providing income for people. I would a lot of times choose people when I would ask, Hey, what do you know, what’s your life story and all these things, and I would be compelled. 

And we’ll talk about the meaning of that word compel in a bit, to do things for people that we’re not at a good place in life, you know, to the points like, oh, I can jump in, and I can help you, I can save you, all you need is a good job, and a good boss and direction and purpose. And working for me will provide that to you. Because I know that I will show up for you time and time again. So hey, come and work for me. And I would do this and hire out of primary compassion, which you like, why is that a bad thing, I’m gonna tell you why as a primary reason that’s a bad thing is a secondary or tertiary reason, it’s all good. But as a primary reason, I would hire out of compassion, much to the detriment of some of the key people who have been with me for years. Because almost always, these individuals that I would hire primarily out of compassion, would end up either quitting, or I would have to fire them. Within months. 

They just never ever, ever worked out from either direction. And it’s really I take complete response, complete responsibility for that, because of the reason that I was hiring them. But I always sensed like, I want to help people, it’s out of the goodness of my heart, you know, I want to give these people home, I want to be able to allow them to, you know, break from these chains of bondage that they’ve been in place it other employers or other things that are going on the life if they only just had another chance, even though they may have severely screwed it up before if they only just had another chance I want to be that person. Right? And I felt almost like there was this driving force that would cause me to do this. Or when I would hear like, like a sob story from somebody, I would just be like, oh, you know what, there must be a reason why they’re in my life right now. I must be the one that’s supposed to help them. So of course, you know, because I do this. If something’s coming across my path is a reason it’s coming across my path. 

I used to say that a lot. By the way. I used to say, if something’s coming across your path, there’s a reason that’s coming, that it’s coming across your path. And I always equated that to generosity, meaning like if there was a financial need or something that was brought before me, like, oh, well, the reason is, well, I must be able to help. I must be the one that’s supposed to help. And while that is true, a lot of the times I found that because of that, you know, and Maybe because of my upbringing in religion and everything else, but I always felt like I was the one that was supposed to write that was supposed to jump in there. That were some of the things that were driving me, to have this compassion and provide something a job or even just straight up, give people money that would come across my path. And a partner of mine in a private security business. When I was trying to do this for a friend who had been a friend of mine for like, 20 years, even stood up at my wedding. And he was having troubles with jobs, you know, and everything. He had his own business for a few years. And then was in a transition point, I think, from one job to another. And I’m like, Dude, I can help you, for the time being, I can give you a security role. All good. Come on, and fill out some paperwork. And I remember I was traveling at the time.

And my partner calls me, like, what’s up, dude? And he’s like, Dude, we can not hire this guy. I was like, why is it like all these things that he’s saying are very condescending, and all this other stuff, you know, and he’s in these really bad places in life, and it’s actually oozing out of him. He’s bad for culture. He’s bad for all these other things and is even bad for himself right now. And I’m like, oh, man, but I want to help the guy. Like, I feel like we need to help the guy. And that’s when he stopped me when I said, I feel like I need to help the guy is like Rick, you and I, we have something similar. Like, what? What does that mean? Because we like to take in strays. That hit me hard. That hit me really hard in that moment, because I was like, Damn, dude, you’re right. I always felt that these individuals that were coming across my plate were someone for me to help in that moment. Right. And I felt like I needed to, because there were there right in front of me, I felt compelled to, when really what these people needed to do was help themselves. 

And I was in a position in the life and this was maybe the reason for some of these people coming across my life for me to be a little dose of reality, and be like, Why don’t you go get your acid job? Right now with me? Why are you leaning on me for this? Or why are you asking me for money when you can go produce something on your own, which is going to be more beneficial for you because now you’ve actually earned that? And this isn’t taking away from other you know, like shelters or things like that, because there’s there’s bridge moments in people’s lives where they need this. But then, the role that I was fulfilling was that of an enabler. Because I felt forced or compelled or obligated just because these people were sitting right in front of me. And that’s how I would hire for a long time. And they would never last. Because they didn’t have any vision beyond where they were at right then. And they were stuck in these cycles. So where they would go from job to job to job or never get past a certain income level, or never be able to really provide for their family, or never actually do anything for themselves, because they relied on all of the people like me, in order to sustain their life. And they never put effort in themselves to actually help themselves. 

So I messed up, and I was hit hard in the face by my partner who said, Dude, we have big hearts. And we’d like to take in strays. We cannot do that anymore. We will not do that anymore. Like, dude, you’re right. My problem has always been prior to this moment. Now, this was like four years ago. Now, prior to this moment. My problem was that I wanted to take people to the top who didn’t even want to see me at the top. Right? It was like begrudgingly being like, Okay, I’m just going to take advantage of this dude from right now. Because he’s got stuff that I don’t, I don’t really want to see him there. I’d rather see him on my level. I’d rather see him suffering, like me. But because he’s got it, I can take something from him. And then I don’t have to work as hard. I know that I can go get a handout from this dude, that woman that’s over there. Because they always do it. That’s great. And they should they should do it. And this is what I’m talking about being compelled or obligated or forced when somebody says they should give me the money that they have just because I don’t have it. Hello, socialism. tax the rich to give to the poor. Being obligated or compelled to give your money to spread the wealth to somebody else is not what humans are supposed to do which doesn’t help anybody. Nobody

With the exception of maybe those bridge times to where you have somebody to get back, and I can tell you story after story of when I worked for a social service agency, about people would come in for rent assistance, free money free fucking money to give them for rent for their place. And there was one stipulation, one requirement in order to receive two months’ worth of free rent money was that they had to come to a budgeting class. So that it would help them not be in the same scenario again, you know, it was over 90% of people be like, Oh, I don’t want that. I don’t want that. I just need to rent money. They didn’t want to put the effort into themselves. All they wanted to do was take from the people who had the money because they felt entitled to whatever else was spreading around without actually having to earn it. That stupid, get up off your lazy ass. If you’re that individual, you’re doing nobody good. And what are you teaching your kids? If that’s the case, this is a reality check. This doesn’t talk him down. This is saying, look in the mirror, come on, you’re better than that. I know, you can do this. I know you can. 

Because there’s probably a moment in your life, where you can look back to where you have done this before, and you were happier, then you are more motivated than because you were happier then because you did it yourself. Not because of a handout from somebody else. If you’re like me, and you’ve got a huge heart, keep helping people keep helping people keep helping people, because I’m not going to stop helping people. I will keep helping people. The form of that help, will come in many different ways now, other than just handouts, because everybody needs to learn how to stand on their two feet, their own two feet, and learn from themselves. Otherwise, they’re going to be in the same spot. So don’t be an enabler like I was teach people and give them an option and opportunity in order to provide for themselves. In order to make choices in their own life. They will generate their own success, their own happiness, their own fulfillment, and create that environment for them. Don’t hand it to them.