All the giving in the world won’t bring success, won’t create the results you want, unless you also make yourself willing and able to receive in like measure. Because if you don’t let yourself receive, you’re refusing the gifts of others—and you shut down the flow. Because human beings are born with appetite, nothing is more naturally geared
toward being receptive than a baby, and if the secret of staying young, vibrant and vital throughout life is to hang onto those most precious characteristics we all have as children but which get drummed out of us—like having
big dreams, being curious, and believing in yourself— then one of those characteristics is being open to receiving, being hungry to receive, being ravenous to receive!”
She laughed. “No, quite the opposite. I was afraid it would get out of hand and become really successful. “I was brought up with a belief that there are two types of people in the world. There are people who get rich, and there are people who do good. My belief system said you’re one or the other, you can’t be both. “The people who got rich did so by taking advantage of everyone else. The people who really cared about others and provided services—policemen, nurses, volunteer work-ers, and, of course, teachers—those were the world’s good people, and they could never be rich. That would be a contradiction in terms.
Martin Luther King, Jr., once said, ‘Every-body can be great because anybody can serve.’ Another
way to say that might be, ‘Everybody can be successful because anybody can give.’ ”
Pindar smiled. “Joe, no offense, but you don’t have that power.”
Joe looked confused.
“I mean, the power to waste my time. Only I can do that. And truthfully, it’s a vice I gave up a long time ago.
“Have you ever wondered what makes people attractive? I mean, genuinely attractive? Magnetic?” He pushed on the big glass door and they walked outdoors into the warm September day. “They love to give. That’s why they’re attractive. Givers attract.” They walked silently toward his car. “Givers attract,” thought Joe. “And that’s why the Law of Influence works. Because it magnetizes you.”