In the past, Sean had a high paying job as a manager. He, together with his wife and children, lived in a comfortable apartment in Oakland and life felt great until his wife got sick. Unfortunately, her diagnosis required staying at the hospital for a long time and receiving expensive treatments, which forced Sean to sell his home.
Sadly, even then, his wife didn’t make it. She passed away, leaving Sean and the kids behind.
With no place to stay, Sean, who resigned from his job prior to his wife’s passing in order to be able to take care of her, ended on the streets. He and his kids moved to a tent at a tent community and struggled to make ends meet.
What’s most, he was unable to find a job and could only work part-time while his kids were at school.
One day, this single father and the kids went to the nearest gas station to get some cheap hot-dogs for lunch. As Sean headed to the store at the station, he noticed an old man in distress. Hesitant whether to approach him, he looked at him for a few seconds and decided to ask if he were in trouble.
The thing was that the old man needed to take his pills, but he forgot his wallet at home and couldn’t pay for the bottle of water.
Instead of offering help, the cashier started yelling at the stranger and threw him away.
“Alright, sir. I only have $2, but you can have it,” Sean said while taking the last two dollars out of his pocket.
“I appreciate it! Thank you!” the stranger said. “No problem,” Sean answered.
“I only had a few coins in the car, but with this, I can have the bottle of water,” the man graciously accepted the donation. “So that I may pay you back, could you kindly provide me with your contact details?”
Sean gave the stranger, who introduced himself as Matthew, his phone number and saw him leaving.
The following morning, Sean was woken up by the sound of two jeeps. Some men got out of them and handed Sean a letter.
The letter asked from him to be at a certain place at particular time that day.
Sean did as he was told. When he arrived at the location, he realized it was Matthew who invited him there. Matthew appeared to be working for a very successful company. Once inside, Matthew told him that he was the owner and he was now looking for someone to start a new business with. As expected, he wanted that person to be Sean.
“While I doubt I’d be able to refuse such an offer, wouldn’t it be better to have a financially stable partner?” Sean inquired.
“Money, eh?” Matthew said raising an eyebrow. “That rich man in a Lexus would not even offer me a few bucks to pay for a bottle of water before you showed up. You, nonetheless, gave me your last few bucks that day. To me, that’s more important than any sum of money that any investor could give. I want to put more heart into my business, not just more money.”
Sean accepted the offer. Not long after that, he was able to rent an apartment for him and his children and help some of the people he spent his days with while living in the tent. He even offered some of them jobs at the new company.
Never in his wildest dreams did this man believe that what seemed like a simple act of kindness could go such a long way and change his life forever
