Opportunity Looks a Lot Like Hard Work

You may have watched the 2013 Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night. If you didn’t, I’ll recap facts about one of the recipients:

• He received the “Ultimate Choice Award.”
• The video of his speech went viral and currently has more than 2.6 million views on YouTube.
• In his unexpected acceptance speech, he talked about the three most important things he learned when he was known as Chris, not the stage name that we may recognize.
• He is the main character in the soon-to-be released movie about Stephen Jobs, the founder of Apple.

If you haven’t guessed it yet, the award winner is Ashton Kutcher. In his speech he listed three important points for teens to learn from his experience:

1. Opportunity looks a lot like hard work—he described washing dishes, sweeping floors and working in a deli before he became well known.
2. Being sexy—“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart,” he said to cheers. “And being thoughtful, and being generous.
3. Fulfillment of refusing to live “inside the world” and instead creating your own life—He said, “Everything around us that we call life was made up of people that are no smarter than you . . . so build a life—don’t live one, build one.”

Point #1 inspired today’s gift.

In Oregon, gas station attendants are required by law to fuel the car. Sometimes it is convenient, but other times when there are very long lines, it is inconvenient. After finally reaching the pump, it can still be a long wait for the attendant to begin filling the tank. Then it takes more time for them to remove the nozzle when it’s done. I’ve removed it myself, but alarms sound. Well, maybe that is an overstatement, but they seem to become anxious when I get out of my car.

Needless to say, during crowded times there is not a lot of love between the attendants and the customers, which describes the scenario today. The female attendant began pumping our gas and was attentive to other cars that needed fuel. After she pulled the nozzle from our gas tank, I said thank you and gave her a couple of dollars. Her face lit up and she smiled. I asked if many people give her tips. She said, “Not very often.”

Ashton, thank you for inspiring over two million people to understand hard work and instilling the virtues of being thoughtful and generous!

In Giving,

Robin