This week, I have once again been reminded about how giving trumps receiving.  I am in Colorado Springs, CO and camping near Garden of the Gods. The reason I am here enjoying this beautiful place is because of the generousity of new friends MJ and Mike Coon. About a year ago, I was speaking at CUNA CFO conference in Phoenix. As participants were walking in the room, I happened to notice Colorado Springs on the name tag of one of the attendees (MJ). After my keynote speech, MJ and I were talking and I told her I would be speaking for paralympians at the US Olympic Training Center   about a month later. She suggested that I might want to stay for the weekend after my speech (which I did with my 11 year old son). We had a blast and had a RICH experience riding the COG train to the summitt of Pikes Peak, watching Paralympic hopefuls in training, and going to dinner and attending their church with MJ and Mike (I ate my very first fish taco in Colorado FAR from the ocean - I am still not sure what type of fish it was).  Mike and my son told jokes all through dinner. MJ and I watched in astonishment as each joke reminded one of them of another.  A friendship was born.

MJ and I continued our relationship by emailing back and forth.  Then I was a keynote speakers for the Credit Union Executive Society annual meeting in Steamboat Springs,  Colorado in March (I spoke for an hour and a half then skied with them for a few hours then spoke again at the end of the day). On that trip, I saw MJ and Mike again.

They became more and more convincing that spending time here would be incredible for my family and me in the summer. So here I am with my family, camping in their camper enjoying the wild life, hiking around Pike’s Peak, starting each day with morning bike ride around Garden of the Gods, visiting the Olympic training center, horse back riding and more. It’s been a blast. They know how to give and even rejected my attempts to buy MJ a day spa gift certificate and Mike a brand new motorcycle fish taco and a joke book. Instead they insisted that IF we wanted to do something, we make a donation to a charity that they suppport…anonomously. I came here for vacation and am leaving with RICH memories AND a valuable lesson about hospitality, generosity, and giving.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund and co-founder of the Jeffrey Roth Cycling Foundation. Click here for more information on professional speaker Tim Richardson.