Blake Mycoskie started TOMS shoes in his apartment and grew it into a $450 million business in seven years. Most will credit his novel business model, but I look at it as God’s abundant blessings. In this edition of By Your Life, we talk about how when we give whatever we have, God can multiply it.

Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/2020/20_07_26.mp3

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 2, 2020

Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-third episode of By Your Life. I’m Lisa Huetteman and I know that you have a hundred different things you could be doing right now, so I thank you for choosing By Your Life.

My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular business world. It’s my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.

In this edition, we’ll reflect on the readings for the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. (Cycle A) It has been over seventeen years since I left the security of corporate America and ventured out on my own. Actually, I wasn’t really on my own because I had a terrific business partner and we became part of a network of certified professionals who shared resources, knowledge, and expertise. So, I was in business for myself, but not by myself.

Battling Scarcity Thinking

At the beginning, I was concerned about other folks in our network who might be in my market area and therefore competing with me for business. After all, we had the same tools and training. I was so misguided. I didn’t understand the value of our network, my own capabilities, nor did I recognize my scarcity mentality. The truth was I would drive by more business every day than I could possibly handle in a year. It was the generosity of the people in my network and the way they helped us, shared experiences and tools they had developed, offered sales and marketing advice, and generally encouraged us that helped me develop an abundance mentality and allowed me to give back and pay it forward in the same way.

There was one exception. When I had earned my first sale in the education market where I had no familiarity, I was directed to one of our affiliates who had significant experience servicing that market. When I called her, she had a lot of advice and told me how she approached her clients, but when I asked if she would send me the templates she had developed, she wanted me to pay her. I was taken aback. Not because I didn’t think her intellectual property had value, but because it wasn’t the culture of our network to charge each other for tools we created. Everyone always gave freely, because it had been freely been given to them. We had a “Pay It Forward” culture. That was the value of our network.

Abundance Thinking

Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah speaks of God’s lavish giving. He wrote, “Thus says the LORD: All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!” (Is 55:1) God is offering everyone his free gift of grace. Unlike our network, where there is an expectation that others will give back to you in a similar way, with God nothing is expected. This is perfect unconditional love. “Come”, he says. (Is 55:1)

We are not so perfect. Our business transactions are built around a quid pro quo. There isn’t anything wrong with this if honestly and ethically pursued. This is the basis of our economy. I have something of value that you want, and you have something of value that I want, and we agree to exchange them, one for the other. This makes the world go around.

Unfortunately, there are those who have nothing of value to offer us, yet they need our products and services. What do we do about the poor? There have been many times when people wanted to hire me but couldn’t afford me. I had a choice to make. Do I help them anyway, do I reduce my fee, or do I walk away? I’ve done all three.

You Do It

In our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus feeds the 5,000, but more than that, he challenges the disciples’ way of thinking, and he is challenging us too. When “the disciples approached him and said, ‘This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.’” (Mt 14:15), he replied, “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” (Mt. 14:16) In other words, stop thinking that it is every man for himself. Instead, when you see someone in need, do something about it. “But they said to him, ‘Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.’” (Mt. 14:17) In other words, we scarcely have enough for ourselves. There is no way we can feed 5,000 people. But Jesus said, “Bring them here to me.” (Mt. 14:18) and we know the rest of the story, “They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over—twelve wicker baskets full.” (Mt. 14:20)

Cooperating with God’s Grace

An example of “give them some food yourselves” thinking in business is TOMS. The trendy shoe company founded by serial entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie has given away nearly 100 million pairs of shoes since it’s founding in 2006. This story of abundant giving started when Blake serendipitously met two women in Argentina who had collected used shoes from wealthy Argentines. He accompanied them to distribute the shoes to children who had none and were living in poor neighborhoods just outside of Buenos Aires. He was overwhelmed by the joy of giving until a friend asked him, “What are these kids going to do when they grow out of the shoes you gave them?”

Blake pondered that question. Knowing that relying on people to donate old shoes wasn’t a sustainable solution, Blake wrestled with alternatives until he came up with the one for one business model where one pair of shoes was given away for every pair sold. He purchased 250 pairs of alpargatas from a local shoemaker and went home to Los Angeles with the goal of selling them so he could return to Argentina and provide a pair of shoes to 250 kids.

Like the five loaves and two fish, 250 pairs of shoes was all he had, but God multiplied them. Blake created a website and called on a trendy fashion store in LA that liked the shoes and the giving model and purchased 85 of the 250 pairs. As luck would have it, the fashion writer for the LA Times was in the store, liked the shoes and the one for one concept, and wrote an article that landed on the cover of the Calendar section. Within days, he had orders for over 2,200 pairs.

But the multiplication of the loaves and fish didn’t end there. After seeing the LA Times article, Vogue contacted Blake and TOMS was featured in the magazine, and by the end of their first year, TOMS had generated approximately $300,000 in sales and Blake returned to Argentina to distribute 10,000 pairs of shoes.

The business continued to grow—to $3 million in sales its second year, $15 million in year three, $60 million in year four and after ATT asked to feature Blake and TOMS in a TV commercial, the company exceeded $450 million in sales in its 7^th year.

The growth in sales was mirrored by an exponential growth in giving. Over the thirteen years since TOMS was founded, the company has lived its mission of “Using business to improve lives” by developing relationships with over 200 non-governmental and humanitarian organizations in 80 countries worldwide. Not only that, what began as a one for one business model for shoes expanded to sales of eyewear providing sight restoration to over 780,000 people and sales of coffee that has made available over 720,000 weeks of safe water through the funding of safe water initiatives throughout the world. Some might think it was serendipity and good luck that led to this success. I look at it as God’s abundant blessings working through Blake Mycoskie and TOMS.

If Your Are Kind, People Will Criticize You. Be Kind Anyway.

But, not everyone liked the TOMS story. Just like Jesus, TOMS has had its share of critics from those who felt they were exploiting the poor to make a profit to those who criticized their giving model as not solving root cause problems. TOMS ignored the former and listened to the later and responded by evolving its giving strategy, committing to produce one-third of their giving shoes in the regions where they give them and investing in strategic impact grants. They now pledge that for every three dollars in profit they will give one dollar away.

Jesus said, “Give them some food yourselves.” (Mt. 14:16) Some scripture scholars suggest that the miracle of the feeding the 5,000 wasn’t a divine magic trick that multiplied the five loaves and two fish, but instead was the result of the people in the crowd responding to the disciples’ generosity and following their example by also sharing what they had. That is quite possible that generosity multiplied generosity.

Generosity Multiplies

The same thing happened because of Blake Mycoskie’s mission to use business to improve lives. While the One for One business model is largely credited to TOMS Shoes, because of their success, other companies have implemented the One for One business model too. Companies like Bombas that donates socks to the homeless, and Soapbox Soaps that helps with poor hygiene, joined TOMS and others in changing the way leaders approach business.

In fact, there is a community of leaders that’s driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good. Since its founding in 2006, over 3,400 companies across 150 industries in 71 countries have become Certified B Corporations and are committed to balance purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment, and they also meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Something that was considered an innovative approach to business just over a dozen years ago is now a global movement.

Blake Mycoskie didn’t start out with a goal of building a global movement. He just responded to his heart that was moved with pity for the poor children in Argentina and did something. He just wanted to sell 250 pairs of shoes and give 250 kids a pair for free. Fourteen years later he and TOMS have achieved incredible success. But, he’ll never know the full extent of how a pair of shoes has impacted the success of nearly 100 million children. He’ll never know many businesses were created because of his example. And, he’ll never know how many people those businesses have helped. That’s how God’s abundant grace works in our economy. As Robert H. Schuller said, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.”

Let us thank God for his abundant blessings.

Holy God, we thank you and praise you for you are an abundant God. Thank you for everyday blessings to which we have become accustomed, but never want to take for granted: shoes on our feet, clean drinking water, electricity, food in the pantry, hot showers, a bed to sleep in and a roof over our heads. Thank you for the free give of grace that you give to each of us. Send us your Spirit Lord so that we may be a conduit of your grace and that it be multiplied for the benefit of others.

May God continue to bless you abundantly and may you glorify the Lord by your life.

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