The Goal
It started as a Michael Jordan painting in a Taylor Swift box.
When artist Erik Wahl threw a ball into the audience, I picked it up, ready to toss it back. On stage behind him was a Michael Jordan painting Erik had painted live, minutes earlier, while encouraging people to take risks. He gave me a choice: toss the ball again or do a Fear Factor activity. “Let’s do it,” I said into the mic. With blue and red paint-stained hands, he handed me a sealed envelope containing the task.
“Have you been trained in interpretive dance?” he joked after joining him on stage. What did I get myself into? There are 500 people in this audience. “Don’t worry,” he said to the audience. “What happens in Austin, stays in Austin.” After a few moments, Erik asked me to open the envelope.
The Michael Jordan painting is yours. Sometimes it pays to take a risk. Congratulations.
I didn’t know what to say. “You’ll need to get the painting home somehow,” Erik continued. He pulled out a cardboard box with Taylor Swift painted on the front.
I’m stunned. People in the audience are discreetly looking up these paintings on eBay to see what they are worth. Killer first day at a work conference.
Others at the conference immediately asked, “What are you going to do with the paintings?” I’m not sure yet, but something tells me an opportunity will come up soon.
In the next session, Courtney Clark shared her gut-wrenching story. She shared how sometimes “just pushing through” isn’t the answer. That sometimes we need to redefine success, adjust our goals, and sometimes super-size them beyond what we think is possible. I’ve been to dozens of conferences and heard perhaps hundreds of inspirational messages, but I was ready to catch something from this one!
As the session was dismissed, I called my wife. “We need to rethink our goals,” I started.
We’ve lived most of our adult lives near the Federal Poverty Level, and lived as frugally as possible. Read our story here. Our ethos has always been to “do the most good.” Even while in debt and struggling financially, we found time and money to donate to causes we cared about.
Starting in 2020, however, we’d started making good money. During Courtney’s message, it hit me that we have become very focused on the money accumulating in our accounts. How can we plan for the greatest returns? How much can we save for retirement? Our financial goals were in direct conflict with our ethos to “do the most good.”
We decided that we should focus on how much money goes out, rather than how much comes in.
So, we set the goal. A super-sized goal that we’re not sure how to achieve on our own. One million dollars. The first step was to use the paintings for good. I asked the conference organizers to please use the paintings to raise funds for Hope Austin, a local non-profit that works to create food security for children.
I had the opportunity to share my story from the stage, and the Taylor Swift painting was auctioned live for $1,500! The buyers committed to donating the painting to their local food bank for another auction. The Michael Jordan painting was also included as a raffle prize for another fundraising effort for Hope Austin.
Can we really do it? A million is a lot of money.
Who can say for certain? We will try our best to make it happen. We’ve only just hit middle age, so we hope to have many years to give personally, organize fundraisers, and share our focus with others. It has been so encouraging to hear from others about their personal giving journeys. Thank you for sharing your wealth. Thank you for making the world a better place.
