586 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
I did the work, and when he asked how much he owed me I
replied, "Oh, about a thousand dollars, as long as it is you; if it were
for anyone else, I wouldn't charge anything:' He smiled and thanked me.
Little did I think, when I made that remark, that he would ever
pay me a thousand dollars for that afternoons work, but he did! Six
months later, after I had entirely forgotten the incident, he called on
me again and asked how much salary I was receiving. When I told him,
he informed me that he was ready to pay me the thousand dollars
that I had laughingly said I would charge him, and he did pay it-by
giving me a position at a thousand dollars a year increase in salary.
Unconsciously, I had put the law of increasing returns to work on
my behalf that afternoon by giving up the ball game and rendering a
service that was obviously rendered out of a desire to be helpful and
not for the sake of a monetary consideration.
It was not my duty to give up my Saturday afternoon, but it was
my privilege! Furthermore, it had been a profitable privilege, because it
yielded me a thousand dollars in cash and a much more responsible
position than the one I had formerly.
I have been thinking for more than twenty-five years about this
privilege of Doing More Than Paid For, and my thoughts have led me
to the conclusion that a single hour devoted each day to rendering
service for which we are not paid can be made to yield bigger returns
than what we receive from all the rest of the day when we are merely
performing our duty.
COMMENTARY
In A Lifetime of Riches, author Michael Rift tells the story of a letter Hill wrote,
just prior to his graduation from business school, to Rufus Ayers, a prominent
attorney and "big men" businessman with whom he aspired to work:
"I have just completed a business college course and am well qualified to
serve as your secretary, a position I am very anxious to have. Because I have no