Money or Kindness?

My customer George told me, "I have Parkinson's disease."

What he didn't tell me—

He only had a couple of months to live.

"My hands are too shaky to use the iPhone I bought," he said.

The phone was a week outside of the return date.

I asked my manager to make an exception.

He said no.

He took me in the back room and said, "Sell him one of these refurbished ones instead."

They were $300.

I knew you could get used basic phones for $20 online.

George had a lot of medical bills.

Said he couldn't afford it.

I told him, "Listen. Come back in an hour."

"I'll go home on my lunch break and get one of my old phones for you."

He came back—

And I gave him the phone for free.

He didn't understand technology—

So I took his iPhone and sold it for him for $450 on eBay.

I handed him the cash the next week.

Two months later—

I got a phone call from his best friend.

She said, "You might not remember me. I came into the store with George to help with his phone."

"He died last week. I wanted you to know that he talked about you until the day he died."

"Your kindness really touched him."

I went into the inventory room and cried.

At the end of the day—

It doesn't matter if you hit your sales goals.

If you're the top performer at work.

Loving others is what truly counts.

You'll be remembered for your kindness—

More than any success you gain.

I know this story is different than stuff I typically write. But I'm experimenting a new way of telling my personal stories.

My mom is probably the only one who knows this story.

Until now.

I don't know what it is about steemit that compels me to post stuff that I normally wouldn't.

To be honest, I have to write things like this for my job. So I wrote down one of my stories to practice.