This is what the world looked like before I was born.

Everyone wanted to give. But they didn’t know how. Or why. Or when. Or where. So they convinced themselves that they wanted to take. They convinced themselves that they were happy taking. They convinced themselves that the world was full of takers and that the more people took the better the world became.

But, they were miserable. They hated taking. They hated the feeling of having more because someone had less. They hated the world they were shaping with their accumulation and consumption.

So, they created therapy.

For $750-an-hour, they poured their hearts out to good listeners. Therapy even worked for a while. They discovered that taking was only filling a void. They discovered that because they worked for it, they weren’t “takers” but “earners.”

What they did not discover was that the void could never be filled by taking, or earning, no matter how much they took or earned.

You see, the void was created by not giving.

(Maybe they should have sprung for the $1,500-an-hour Austrian shrink…)

There was another problem. Those that didn’t have—maybe they were orphans, or ailing, or abandoned, or needed a help-me-up, or simply didn’t have enough energy to take, take, take, earn, earn, earn—were falling by the wayside.

So, organizations sprung up to help those in need. They were run by people whose sole mission was to convince people that they could give a little to the world around them.

It was painful. It was demoralizing. It was heartbreaking.

But when someone gave, it was all worth it.

Forget for a second those that were helped… you should have seen the smile beaming on the giver’s face and engraved on the giver’s soul!

This was the world before I was born.

Giving is predictable