Giving Up on the Gala | Don Ghermezian

I've got 100 stories that I could share with people about the miracles that I've seen, what happens when somebody keeps their eyes pure. I had a tenant coming to Edmonton at West Edmonton Mall. It was a big tenant. They wanted to sign a big deal. It was their first store in Canada, and everybody wanted them in Canada, but they came to us first, to West Edmonton Mall. And so, this particular company has an annual gala. It actually moves around the world every year, it happened to be in New York that year, and they sent me tickets to go to this gala. My wife and I were living in Edmonton. We were super excited. We got on a plane and we flew to New York. On the plane, I turned to my wife and said, Marina, this tenant came to Canada. They signed with us. They didn't open in Toronto, they didn’t open in Vancouver, they didn’t open in Montreal. They opened in Edmonton before anywhere else, and they took a huge store. This might be the biggest store they have. It's really important that this tenant does well. I don't think Hashem would appreciate me going to this gala and Chas v’Shalom maybe we'll see things or people might not be dressed properly. That's not the way to repay Hashem for what He did. I don't think we're going. I landed at the airport. At the airport, I called the head of real estate in this company, and I explained to them, I'm giving you these two tickets back. The head of real estate's like, Are you crazy? You're the first person that's ever returned two tickets to this gala. It's harder than the Met Ball. I’m like, No, I'm not crazy, but I'm an Orthodox Jew. I'm not going to put myself in an environment where I don't believe it's right for me to be. And in return, do me a favor. How much money do you think the store will do? What would you be happy with if your store did in the first year at West Edmonton Mall? He said: If we do $15 million in the first year, we'll be ecstatic. I said: Okay. I make percentage rent on top of the $15 million. That was their higher threshold. So on any sales that this tenant would do above $15 million, I make money. I said: So you know what? I'm going to give you these two tickets back, because there's no way that I'm going to repay God, repay Hashem, by going to this gala after He did this for me. And when your store opens up and you do double what you expected to do year one, you call me back and let me know that you appreciate I gave you the two tickets back. Year one, they did $29.8 million in sales. Double what he anticipated on doing. I had the number one store in the entire chain, globally, that they had that year. You know, people sometimes fool themselves into thinking that they need to run and jump and this and that, and Chas v’Shalom compromise on things that they know that they shouldn't compromise on. When you go outside of your comfort zone, when you understand that Hashem controls everything, when you keep your eyes pure and you say: Hashem, I'm doing this because I believe that You run everything. Please help me. You will see miracle after miracle after miracle. It's not easy to do, but I promise you, if you always do what you know to be the right thing for Hashem, as illogical as it may sound in business, it just matters if it's logical to Hashem. And that's the best business advice you'll ever get in your entire life.