Transcript
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[Music]
I've got a hundred 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. Big tenant. They wanted
signed a big deal. It was the first
store in Canada. Everybody wanted them
in Canada, but they came to us first to
West Edmonton Mall. And so this
particular company has a 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. 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 of 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 galllet. 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 Edmonson Mall? 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 $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
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.
[Music]
