By Olubunmi Adebayo
*Our lives are designed and packaged by God to make a difference, including yours.*
*But making or not making a difference is a function of our individual choices and decisions.*
*I want you to read the story of this seemingly inconsequential boy, and see if there is any lesson to learn from him :*
*The event took place in the city of New York, and the year was 1908.*
*Hundreds of thousands of immigrants were pouring into America, most of them were very poor.*
*Many of them were children too. These children were made to work for 12 hours or more in days in the factories of the time. Some worked in mines too, while others on the streets.*
*One of those children was a 12-year-old boy named Giuseppe “Joe” L.*
*Joe was from Sicily in Italy. He arrived NYC in 1906, his parents having died on the ship due to typhus. He was alone. He had no money. He had no family. He slept in doorways. He ate from garbage cans. Then he got a job. A newspaperboy.*
*He sold newspapers on the corner of 5th Avenue and 23rd Street. He could not read the newspapers he was selling. He could not read anything. But he could shout. And he did.*
*On a cold morning in November 1908, Joe found a wallet in the street. It was leather. It was thick. It was full of money — $400, which is about $120,000 today. Joe had never seen that much money in his life. He could have kept it. He could have bought food. He could have bought a coat. He could have bought a bed.*
*Instead, he looked at the name on the driver’s license inside the wallet. He could not even read the name. He could not read the address too. He asked a policeman to read it for him. The policeman said: “John D. Rockefeller Jr. 4 West 54th Street.”*
*John D. Rockefeller Jr. was the son of the richest man in America. He had a net worth of over $1 billion — about $30 billion today. He therefore did not necessarily need the $400.*
*Joe walked to 4 West 54th Street. He knocked on the door. A butler answered. Joe said: “I found this wallet. It belongs to Mr. Rockefeller.” The butler took the wallet. He gave Joe a nickel. Joe said: “I do not want a nickel. I want to read.”*
*The butler did not understand. Joe said: “I cannot read. I want to learn. Can Mr. Rockefeller teach me to read?”*
*The butler laughed. He closed the door. Joe stood there for 10 minutes. Then the door opened. John D. Rockefeller Jr. himself was standing there. He had heard what Joe said. He said: “You walked 40 blocks to return my wallet. You refused a reward. You asked to read. Young man, you will read.”*
*Rockefeller hired a tutor. Joe learned to read in 6 months. He learned to write in 8 months. He went to school. He went to college. He became a lawyer. He helped Rockefeller establish the Rockefeller Foundation — one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world.*
*Joe worked for the Foundation for 40 years. He helped give away $1 billion — the same amount Rockefeller had. He helped build schools in Africa. Hospitals in Asia. Libraries in America.*
*When Joe died in 1972 — at the age of 76 — the New York Times ran an obituary. The headline: “JOE L., FORMER NEWSBOY, HELPED ROCKEFELLER GIVE AWAY FORTUNE.” The obituary did not mention the wallet. It did not mention the 40 blocks. It did not mention the nickel.*
*John D. Rockefeller Jr. died in 1960. In his will, he left a bequest to “the newsboy who taught me that character is not measured by money, but by the decision to return what is not yours.”*
*He left Joe $1 million. Joe donated the money to the Foundation. He did not keep a cent.*
*The question that Joe’s grandson — a man named Joseph L. III — asked at his grandfather’s funeral: “If my grandfather had kept that wallet, he would have had $400. He would have bought food. He would have survived. He would have lived an ordinary life. Instead, he returned it. He lived an extraordinary life. He changed the world.*
*The question before you and I is this: “what would you have done?”*
*I will leave you to answer for yourself.*
Top of the day to you 👍
