Opening the door revealed a small box room crammed floor to ceiling with a stash of valuable items.
That was the scene from a detective programme I remember watching a few years ago. I think it was New Tricks, but I can’t be sure.
What I do remember is that a guy who worked at the local community centre was being investigated in connection with the murder of an old woman and when they searched the store room, they found it full of antiques and sentimental items.
The guy would organise events like bingo for the older people of the community and he would befriend the lonely ones, offering to help them out with shopping and doing small errands.
Because items missing from the dead woman’s house were found in his room, he was arrested and questioned. He was later released due to the fact that he had an alibi and was innocent of the crime.
The reason he had a store room full of valuable items was that he was given them by the people he helped who were grateful for his help and time.
The detectives believed that it was a cynical ploy to befriend old people as a way to be gifted precious items that he could later sell for a profit.
It couldn’t be proven – because of the murder enquiry it wasn’t their priority to chase up – and because as the guy said…
“They chose to give me the stuff as a way to say ‘thank you’. I help them, I sit with them and I talk with them. I spend time with them and relieve their loneliness.” … or words to that effect.
Whether or not he had decided to volunteer at the community centre purposely to get close to lonely and vulnerable old people as a way to fleece them of their belongs, isn’t what I want to focus on.
What I do want to focus on is the fact that the people he was giving his time to, chose to give him those items as a ‘thank you’.
I’m not going to get all ‘fluffy’ on you and sprout ancient wisdom like ‘kindness begets kindness’… but there is a social and psychological truth to what is happening here.
People, for the most part, reciprocate kindness with other acts of kindness. That kindness can also be measured financially.
The success coach Jim Rohn said:
“If you help enough people get what they want, you can have everything you want.”
When you give people what they want, they are more likely to stick around and give you what you want.
If you want money, giving people what they want is a sure fire way of getting paid.
Maybe not right away, but the more people you help, the greater chance there is of people helping you earn money by hiring you for your services or buying your products.
In the case of the guy who volunteered at the community centre and befriended the elderly, he was rewarded by them gifting him items they no longer wanted.
It was an interesting episode because it touched upon the idea that he was conning them out of their possessions yet there was no direct coercing that couldn’t be explained away as things most people say when they are in other people’s homes…
“Nice home you have here Maggie, I love that clock, you don’t see many of those these days.”
Was he a genuine guy who was simply being friendly and helpful who received gifts – after all, some people are offended if you turn down their gifts and insist that you take them – or was he in fact ‘grooming’ them to ‘voluntarily’ give him the items he ‘liked’?
As one old woman said in the show…
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“I gave it to him, it was my choice, I wanted him to have it. He has been so good to me.”
It wasn’t like he had stolen the items from them. They offered them to him. It just so happened to be the items he said he liked.
The elderly did get something of value back, his time and help. You can’t put a price on that and as you get older, your perception of value and your needs change.
Anyway, I digress there.
The point I am making here is that giving people your time, whether that is by helping them, giving them advice or simply having a conversation, can come back to you as a financial reward… very often at a higher value.
That is what Jim Rohn was saying, by helping others get what they want, they will help you get what you want.
Helping people doesn’t mean having to sit with them in person and talk face-to-face. There are many ways that you can help people.
- Writing useful and informative posts on social media.
- Replying to posts on social media.
- Writing and publishing useful and informative articles to a website.
- Writing a book or report.
- Holding a free class (online or offline)
- Writing and sending useful and informative emails.
- Publishing a free newsletter.
- Recording a series of useful and informative videos and uploading them to YouTube and your website.
- Recording useful and informative podcasts and adding them to iTunes and Spotify.
- Doing a live Q&A on social media.
- Do something for someone, like removing an unwanted picture from their webpage if they are struggling.
Not everyone you help will reciprocate. Some may reciprocate right away; others may take weeks or even months before they return the favour.
People may reciprocate differently too.
Some may buy a product from you, some may chose to hire you to do something, and others may pass your name and details onto someone else who chooses to hire you.
It won’t all happen at the same time or necessarily in the same way… but it will happen.
A book can help a lot of people without you needing to talk to hundreds or thousands of people individually.
That one book can talk to them all for you.
That book is you having a personal conversation with hundreds or thousands of different people while saving you hundreds or even thousands of hours of your time.
Write the book once, give it away or sell it, and reap the rewards later.
You may not have a load of old women gifting you their unused silverware or antique clocks, but you will have people wanting to buy more products and services from you.
Click the link below to discover how you can earn six figures a year by selling one cheap book:
How To Build A Six Figure Business Selling One Book
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PS… With a book, you are in a position to help a lot of people all at the same time… and for many years after.
The late Bob Proctor said that his book ‘You Were Born Rich’ was responsible for putting millions of pounds into his pocket.
He wrote it once – well twice actually, he left the first manuscript in the back of a taxi, this was before the days of having multiple digital copies – and then sold it for many years after.
Here’s that link again: