The Jewish business advice hidden inside a bottle of Crown Royal. 

Recently, I got a call from a man named Rev Benny Heinemann, the owner of BP Graphics, a very large printing and design company in Lakewood, New Jersey. And he says to me, "Hello, I'd like to hire you to speak at our annual CM." I said, "Sure, I'd love to." And then I hung up. And I realized, "Wait, what? CM? What What's CM? This isn't a Kyle. This isn't a Yeshiva. This is a printing company. What was he talking about?" So, I called him back to get the details. >> [music] >> And he told me something extraordinary. He said that every day, smack in the middle of the work day, the entire company, or at least all the men, [music] leave their desks and stop whatever they're doing, and they learn together. They take a masachta, and bit by bit, day by day, they chip away at it until eventually, together, they finish it. And I was blown away. Because think about it. This is not a mesifta. This is a business. Businesses are here to make money, right? It makes absolutely no sense to tell half your employees to give up a chunk of their day to go learn smack in the middle of the day. But when you deeply believe that your money comes from Hashem, then of course you learn as a company smack in the middle of your day, even though it makes no rational, logical, financial sense, because if Hashem is in charge of the money anyway, then Hashem comes first. And then learning in the middle of the day suddenly makes all the financial sense in the world. [music] Amazing. But here's where it gets even more amazing. A few days later, Mr. Heinemann swings by my apartment to bring me this, invitation to the CM. And being that BP is [music] a major invitation printer, I knew it was going to be a cool, unique invitation, and I was right. He hands me a bottle of whiskey that they had printed over with the BP logo and a really creative invitation printed on it. And I took a look at it, and I couldn't believe it. It was none other than Crown Royal Whiskey. And they could not have picked a better invitation because let me tell you the story of Crown Royal and you'll see exactly what I mean. Many years ago, there was a Jewish man who lived in Montreal, Canada by the name of Samuel Bronfman and he owned one of the largest beverage companies in the world called Seagram's. He was one of the wealthiest people in all of North America and one day he gets a letter in the mail from the Queen of England and she's visiting Canada [music] on a historic visit and she wanted Mr. Bronfman to make her a special drink in honor of her visit. So, Mr. Bronfman got right to work and he started making all types of liqueurs and whiskeys and liquors, but nothing was coming out right and he kept trying, but they all seemed to fail and he wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't let down the Queen of England. She would destroy his company and she would literally bring him back to England and turn him into a jar of raspberry jam. So, what did he do? He decided to travel to meet a holy [music] tzaddik and ask the tzaddik for advice. And the tzaddik said to him, "You're making a drink for the Queen of England. Instead, make it for the King of the World. And while you're making it, make sure to learn for a few minutes and then see how it comes out." So, he goes back and he tries once more. But this time while he's making it, he says, "I am making this to be used to honor the King of the World. I might just share some with the Queen of England." And lo and behold, [music] the drink comes out deliciously and he calls it Crown Royal. Isn't that amazing? BP Graphics chose to print the invitation to a siyum celebrating the Torah they learned in the middle of their work day on a bottle that itself came from that very same idea. Putting Hashem first and recognizing the real source of success is the King of the World. And I think there's a message here for all of us. I think some of us need to get better at reminding ourselves that our money comes from Hashem. And of course, we know that conceptually, but do we live that practically? If Hashem is the one providing the money and my job is simply to do the hishtadlus, then why am I sometimes leaving davening early to get to work? I'm leaving a conversation with the one who gives me my money to go to try to make money. Does that make any sense? If I really believe that Hashem is the one who gives me the money, then why would I ever cut corners and do things that aren't yashar stick to make money? Why would that make any sense? If I really believe that Hashem is the one who gives me money, then why would I ever talk about money on Shabbos? Obviously, we have to work. Obviously, we have to do hishtadlus. But there's a difference between doing hishtadlus and acting like your hishtadlus is your source. We cannot get so busy working for the paycheck that we forget who's really writing it. You're sitting in the middle of night seder and suddenly your phone rings >> [music] >> and you see that it's an important business phone call and you think, "I have to take this. This could be a big deal." Maybe. But you know what else it could be? The yetzer hara call. Because Hashem could have sent you that phone call during your work hours. He could have made the customer call at 10:00 in the morning. He could have sent a deal at 2:00 in the afternoon and yet he sent it smack in the middle of your night seder. Maybe it's Hashem calling to test your emunah. Maybe that call is really the yetzer hara dressed up like your manager who wants to know, "Do you really believe that your money comes from Hashem? Can you leave the phone alone? Can you keep learning? Let me see. When you say you believe in Hashem, is all is it all lip [music] service? Where you say you believe but you don't actually? Or do you have the spiritual backbone to say, 'No, no. Not now. Now, I'm learning with Hashem.'" And maybe that's the message of this siyum. It's not just that a company finished a mesechta. It's that a company had the courage and the backbone and the emunah to stop in the middle of making money and learn because they believed that ultimately the one who provides the money is the king of the world. So let's take that message with us. Let's do our hishtadlus. Let's work hard. Let's build. But let's never forget who's actually running the show. Put Hashem first, keep learning, and let Hashem take care of the rest.