Many years ago two boys were working their way through Stanford University. Their funds got desperately low, and the idea came to them to engage Ignacy Paderewski for a piano recital. They would use the funds to pay their board and tuition.
The great pianist's manager asked for a guarantee of $2,000. The guarantee was a lot of money in those days, but the boys agreed and proceeded to promote the concert. They worked hard, only to find out that they had got only $1,600.
After the concert the boys told the great artist the bad news. They gave him the entire $1,600, along with a promissory note of $400, explaining that they would earn the amount at the earliest possible moment and send the money to him. It looked like the end of their college careers. Paderewski refused, tearing the note into two, he returned the money to them as well. He told them, "take out of this money all of your expenses and keep for each of you 10 percent of the balance for your work. Let me have the remaining.
The years flew by. World war 1 came and went. Paderewski, now premier of Poland, was striving to feed thousands of starving people in Poland. The only person in the world who could help him was Herbert Hoover, who was in charge of the US Food and Relief Bureau. Hoover responded and soon thousands of tons of food were sent to Poland.
After the starving people were fed, Paderewski journeyed to Paris to thank Hoover for the relief sent to him.
"That's alright, Mr. Paderewski," was Hoover's reply. "Besides, you don't remember it, but you helped me once when I was a student at college, and I was in trouble."
The people you stepped on while climbing up a ladder are the same people you will step on while coming down. The finger you help today may tomorrow, turnout to be the hand that will feed you. The people you meet on your way going, are the same people you are going to meet while coming back but what am not certain of is where you are going to meet them. Goodness has a way of coming back. You don't have to do good with a desire to get back. It just happens automatically. Always remember that Ralph Waldo Emerson once said "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." Thanks.
