20 Times More | Don Ghermezian

I want to start by saying I used to be known as the person that owns American dream. Today I think I'm more known as the person who does the VA in videos and that actually means a lot more to me than owning American dream. I speak a lot about the importance of giving staka and I tell people all the time that when you give staka, Hashem actually says you can test Hashem with staka. what I mean you will get 10 times reward for the stock you give in this world it's a remarkable remarkable concept what I've actually come to learn beyond that is that when you really push the boundaries and you're careful about I think that the reward that comes from Hashem is even greater than that I actually tell people it's 20 times and I'm going to tell you a crazy story that happened to me just several weeks ago I've been working with Netflix for a long time I got a phone call from them we're trying to do something big at American Dream and they reached out they have a movie that's coming out. They called me. They said, "Look, we want to advertise our movie. We want to do it in American Dream." Like, "Sure, absolutely. Of course. Good for the relationship. What do you guys want to do? We want to wrap two elevators inside the mall. They want to do it for 30 days." So, $24,000. That's what we came up to. So, we had agreed $24,000 everything contracts going out. I said, "By the way, guys, before uh we finalized the contract, could you please send me the production? Send me what it is that you want to put in the elevators." They're like, "How come?" I'm like, "I just like to see what you're going to put in my center." So, they sent me what it was going to look like and I reached back out to Netflix and I said, "Look guys, I don't think this one's going to work for me." Like, "What are you talking about?" I said, "The image isn't really an image I'd like to put inside the center." It was nothing crazy, nothing terrible, but you know, I know that there's going to be from families and kids are going to be in these elevators all the time. They're going to the parks and it's just not something that I wanted to subject them to. So, I called Netflix. I'm like, "Guys, I'm sorry. I'm out." They're like, "What are you talking about?" I'm like, "Yeah, we're not going to do it." 10 minutes later, my chief operating officer comes into my office. Don, what are you doing? you just turned down $24,000 from Netflix. I'm like, "Yeah, I know." And he said, "The picture's not even that bad." I'm like, "Yeah, I know. Uh, you know the story I tell you about how 10 times return when we give a charity? We'll get 20 times return for this one. It's more important even than giving charity." 7 minutes later, and I think you guys have become accustomed to a couple of these stories. It's absolutely remarkable how it happens. 7 minutes later, my chief revenue officer walks into my office. He says, "Don, I got to tell you something is going to blow you away." We just got a phone call out of the blue, unexpected, from a major major New York company. They're looking to buy tickets to the theme park for their employees. He says, "I asked them, how much is your budget for the tickets for the theme park?" He goes, "Don, $480,000." $480,000 is 20 times the $24,000 that I gave up 7 minutes before this. My chief operating officer was in my office when the chief revenue officer walked in to tell him that. And I actually am going to put up on this screen a check for $480,000 so that everybody can see this was the check that I had gotten. It was just an incredible incredible thing. He's not Jewish, but he's been around long enough in the company to see these types of miracles happen day after day after day. And it happens because we were not prepared to sacrifice what we believed, what I believed, what Hashem wants to see from us, from the family inside of our shopping center.