Tales My Mother Told Me...Tale 1: "When you help one, you help thousands"

“When you help one, you help thousands”~my mother

When I was a child, I learnt things through my mother’s eyes. I gained wisdom & insights from mum naturally and unconsciously.

Back in the early 70’s, my parents had a manufacturing business and mum & Dad were always taking in lots of workers and giving them refuge and treating them all as family members, giving them shelter, food, clothes, job and even money to help their families too. Most of the young workers were from country towns where there were no opportunities for them to get work.

We also had a lot of elderly women come and visit us on a regular basis and we called them aunty this and aunty that. At the time I was really inquisitive and wanted to know what the relationship between us and those aunties were. It turned out some were related to our family and most just lived in the same village where our grandparents came from. They often came to see mum to get a job for their children or grandchildren or money to support their families.

I vividly remember this one particular old aunty who came to see mum quite regularly and always bringing along things to sell. Those items you could actually buy from a local supermarket such as pickles and sauces etc. But Mum always bought from her and always gave her more money than what the items were worth.

As a child I spent a lot of time with my mum and I did not understand why mum was doing things the way she did.

One day I asked her “Mum why are we always taking care of someone’s children and why are you always giving more money than what it’s worth to old aunty and even she told you that you were giving her too much.

Why Mum?

She looked at me and gave me a smile and stroked my head and said my dear little one “When you help one you help thousands”

I looked at mum puzzled.

What do you mean by that mum? I asked

Mum started to explain the meaning to this quote.

My little one, just remember that we are connected with everything around us. When you hurt things or people around you, it harms you back. When you help others, you also help yourself. When you help someone in need you are actually helping him and the people that are connected to him like his family. By giving him a job you are giving him a future and he can offer a brighter future for his family too.

Old aunty is a single mother. Old uncle passed away and left her with 10 children. She is a good mother who works very hard to raise her children. Her business is visiting people’s homes and selling food items. Buying things from her will provide food on the table for her children and sending them to school so her children will have a better future and old aunty can retire early and her children can look after her.

My little one, every act has consequences whether good or bad. This is the basic principle behind the concept of karma.

So from this learning, I apply this principle to our business and coaching to our clients.

Food for thought for you to apply this to your business lifestyle:

By helping others you also help your business. A great example is when you are in a networking event where you connect with other businesses and you form a relationship with them and you get the opportunity to help them by referring their business. In turn, they too refer business to you.
Offer your expertise such as teaching or running an art class, or a creative workshop where you are sharing your skills and knowledge with others. It gives you creditably where you can connect and inspire your audience and because you are offering your expertise you are exposed to many people who resonate with what you do and they will find you to buy your product or use your service and they even tell others about you.

The key message I learnt from this is when you open your hands to help others, make sure it’s your full intention and you do not expect anything back in return. You help people because you want to! The act of helping people and expecting something back in return will only disappoint you and make you feel resentful because you are seeking a form of “What’s in it for me”.

“Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find inner peace”-Buddha

If you are openly helping and do not expect anything back, you will be surprised when you are in need of help as there will be people who will openly help you back in return.

This feeling is the most grateful one… believe me I have experienced this many times and I am very thankful & grateful for it.

I hope this tale can inspire you to review the ways on how you think in life and in business. Helping people to get where they want to be and to see them grow and succeed is the most rewarding feeling you can experience

So when was the last time you helped someone?

What was it? And how did you feel?

Please share your thoughts and leave your comments here or leave a comment on ArtSHINE Facebook page.

Tune in next Friday for tale 2: “Your mind is powerful”

More Tales My Mother Told Me…

Volume 1:

Tale 1: “When You Help One, You Help Thousands”

Tale 2: “Your Mind is Powerful”

Tale 3: “The Importance of Self Understanding”

Tale 4: “Being Compassionate”

Tale 5: “Finding the Inner Calmer In You”

Tale 6: “The Magic Pen”