1. Last week a Manhattan homeless man asked a New York exec for change. The woman didn't have any change but lent the man her American Express Platinum card.
"I asked her for change and told her I wasn't working. She said she only had a card. She said, 'Can I trust you?' I said, 'I'm honest, yes."
Many who witnessed this act of kindness outside a New York restaurant doubted the man would return. A short while later the man returned to the restaurant to return the credit card to the woman, as her friends looked on in amazement. The man only spent $25 worth of goods: deodorant, body wash, vitamin water, and cigarettes.
The woman exclaimed, "What he did was no surprise to me. People kept telling me,
'Why would you talk to him and trust him? But are we only supposed to trust people we know?
2. Over a year ago NFL player Donte Stallworth's car hit and killed a man who dashed across the highway to catch a bus right before dawn. Stallworth was legally drunk, and was arrested,convicted,sentenced, and suspended from football for one year.
What has been overshadowed in all of this, until now, was the fact that Donte ordered his lawyers to accept a plea deal that convicted him of a felon, even when evidence showed he had an excellent chance of being found innocent.
Donte said it was his fault, and didn't want to make the man's family sit through a court trial and relive the man's death.
"Any little decision you make will have a subsequent reaction. Be cognizant of your decisions", Donte now preaches when speaking at kids camps.
In the first story the New York exec's trust and the homeless man's honesty were, in a sense, both rewarded: her's for getting her card back with no real harm done to her pocketbook and the homeless man's honesty and the publicity that came from it may eventually open a door for someone to offer him a job. I think the woman's greater reward is that her act of kindness sent the message for us to approach the homeless with a better view of them as people.
(one sidebar to this story though: in the picture, the man, who had lost his job in real estate, did not look like a homeless man, he was actually dressed okay. In today's economy you do not necessarily need to look the profile of homeless to actually be homeless)
Second, Donte Stallworth was a pretty good guy of integrity and character before his accident: volunteering his off season time working with kids camps. He made one mistake, honed up to it, served a short time in jail, and this season returns to playing football.
"Everything has been challenged. My faith has been tested. My character has been tested. I try to think positive for everybody", Donte exclaims.
Donte was honest with his mistake and placed his trust in his own character as a person.
"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." -Albert Einstein
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