THE $100,000 LESSON
In 1992, I had 13 offices across the US and Canada. I was deeply involved in Kabbalah. My CFO came into my office on January 2 and said my manager in Calgary, Alberta stole $100k dollars from my company. Whoah! My manager had sent in false deposit slips all through the Christmas season and now we are out all that money.
My heart skipped.
A loss like that would deeply hurt my company. I was ready to panic. I had chevre working in my office full time at that time on Kabbalah projects. Thank God, I remembered what I learned from the Rav and Karen in that instant.
No one can steal what is truly yours.
And if they did steal it, it wasn’t mine to begin with.
I have to be accountable for it. I have to look inside and let go of judging the thief.
What kind of utter BS, cultish thought and lame excuse is that for losing a hundred thousand dollars?
I pushed that thought aside as well.
I had credited the Kabbalah Centre for a lot of my success in business at that time because of my volunteering and donating money and having the Chevre work out of my head office. I mean, the more i was getting involved, the bigger my business grew.
Then came the test.
Was I now going to blame the Kabbalah Centre because it did not work? I just lost a $100 grand! How the hell could that happen? I was such a good person!
And then I said something to my CFO. He was an older gentleman, an Israeli, and a wonderful guy. I said, “Don’t worry, no one can take what is mine, and if it’s not mine, i would’ve lost it anyway. And if it is mine, it will come back some other way. Perhaps on another deal. Don’ react and don’t judge.”
He went cross-eyed.
He turned red.
I can still see the look on his face and it makes me smile.
He thought I was out of my freaking mind. He said, “Do i just do nothing then? I shouldn’t do my job?”
I smiled at him.
I told him: “Of course you should do your job, but don’t do it from victim consciousness. Do it with the understanding and calmness and certainty that nobody can truly take what belongs to us. And if they did take it, it means it wasn’t mine to begin with” (I was shaking in my boots as i said it, make no mistake).
Then i continued: “Now, with that consciousness go ahead and do what you have to get that money back.”
I realized and learned in that one moment that it’s not about not doing the 1% work. We must do the 1% work. But it’s all about the consciousness behind the action of the 1% work. Repeat that last line a few times to yourself.
In other words, am I truly accountable? Do I look within? Or do i blame and judge the thief who took $100,000 of my money?
Can I live the teachings when my livelihood and business is on the line?
My CFO shrugged and accepted what I had told him and went back into his office.
The next morning he came into my office with a sheepish grin on his face. $88k dollars had turned up in a bank in Winnipeg.
I said, “See!”
He then lost the smile and said, “Ya, but that money only turned up because it was all checks and he could not cash the checks. But the manager did steal the $12k in cash.”
I said, “Why are you judging and creating that reality with your certainty? If it’s my money, he cannot steal it. It will come back on another deal even if he did take it. Or there will be another explanation. Don’t judge the situation. Do you understand?”
He shrugged again and said okay.
I said, “Great, now go and find that money with this new consciousness.”
A week later, the manager called me from Florida. He admitted that he was trying to steal the full $100k. He said he was now driving back to Toronto.
So this dude in Calgary, takes my money, and then drives to Florida, and then for some odd reason, he feels compelled to apologize and then drive all the way to Toronto. He came into my office a few days later with the cash, minus $2300 that he used on travel expenses. He apologized.
That was one of my first examples of letting go of victim consciousness and being accountable and watching a small miracle unfold in my life.
The Rav told me to never forget this.
This is only one story of COUNTLESS stories where i managed to create the most difficult miracle of all — letting go of my victimhood and judgment and doubt, and live the teachings when my money or my life was on the line.
For whatever reason, i found the strength to look within.
And at that point, I was just a newbie. That year turned out to be the biggest year I ever had in business. The greatest profit.
But that was just a practice run for bigger tests and bigger blessings that were to come my way.
If you’d like, you can read the article on this blog that shares some of those tests I had undergone. The article is called Shall I Judge.
FREE webinar with Billy Phillips
In this free webinar, Billy shares some powerful insights about Jesus and the Messiah riding a Donkey and why the secret teachings of Jesus are coming out at this point in history. He also reveals a startling redacted section of Zohar that was taken out back in the middle ages.
