Giving Back: The $4 Investment That Turned Me Around

By Andy King, VP of Sales & Giving Back Champion / Trinity Solutions, Inc.

ROI in Giving Back?

$4?!  You were thinking a notepad, right?

Actually, it was cinnamon rolls, but I’ll get to that later.

I think this all started because the President of Trinity Solutions, Ron, watched too much news one weekend. It was one of those particularly bad weekends where people were just screaming at each other in the streets. Before our Monday morning company prayer, Ron announced a Pay It Forward program. Basically, if you saw someone at a restaurant from a different culture, looked like they needed a friend, or was a first responder, buy them lunch, hear their story, make a new friend, and whatever you spend, the company will pay you back. I thought this was a cool idea, but I must admit, I couldn’t figure out the ROI of this program. (I’m in sales after all.)  How could focusing on giving back just didn’t seem to be something I thought would work.

Then, I lost a BIG sale. Like most salesmen, I fell into that introspective spiral where you second guess everything. I stopped by a local restaurant to have lunch and noticed two firemen. Thinking of the Pay It Forward program, I bought these guys some cinnamon rolls to take back to the firehouse. I talked to them for a few minutes, then asked if I could pray for them and their station’s safety. The bigger of the two firemen smiled and said, “Let’s do it now!”

Then, something crazy happened; an older couple came over and joined us.
Then, the restaurant manager join our little huddle.  And before I knew it, all six of us from different backgrounds were united together as one; it was really something to experience.