What’s Your 10%?

On March 7th 2021 I recorded a video as part of an assignment for the altMBA program I was enrolled in.

I had no intentions of ever publicly sharing the video, nor did I have any idea that one year later I would be publishing my thoughts and ideas into the world via this website and The Daily Tithe, neither of which existed at the time.

Yet, here we are.

Yesterday while overlooking this work, I thought this might be a perfect time and place to share.

After cringing at my appearance I figured I’d just write a transcript for the video, but instead I chose to post both.

Hope you enjoy!

I’ve been waiting over 20 years to tell this story. When I was a young child my mom and I negotiated a deal for me to earn $7 allowance every week for doing house chores. But there was one stipulation, I had to give 10% away. The very next weekend I had my first opportunity to give 70¢, but instead I chose to cheerfully give $1. 

Now if I told you that $1 could change the world you probably wouldn’t believe me. It’s far easier to believe that it would take millions and billions of dollars to change the world. 

The truth is most people don’t have millions of dollars and even far less have billions of dollars. So if all it takes is a few people giving millions and billions of dollars to change the world, we would then have to explain why we live in a world that in many ways remains unchanged. We would have to explain homeless shelters that are still full, we would have to explain why children go to bed at night without having a meal. We would have to explain why in some parts of the world there is no clean water to drink. We would have to explain anxiety and depression that leads to suicide. We would have to explain why everyday people going through everyday things, in a world with 8billion others and somehow still they feel alone. 

When I gave my $1 I didn’t change the world, I changed my world. I changed my thinking, I changed my mind, I changed my heart. And so I’m not asking you to change the world, I’m asking you to change your world, your thinking, your heart, your mind. I’m asking you to change the world around you. Your friend, your neighbor, your co-worker. The family you go to school with, the family you attend church service with, what’s their name? Could you change their world? And if you change their world, and they change the world of someone else, and then they change the world of someone else, might we eventually live in a world that is forever changed. Might we live in a world where homeless shelters are empty, where there are no more soup kitchens, where if I go outside the man that once slept on the sidewalk in the dead of the winter is no longer there. 

What can you give? 

Whose world can you change? 

What’s your 10%?