Turning Down $4 Billion | Rabbi Yehuda Zev Klein

In 1985, a new company called EA Sports approached the famous broadcaster and legendary NFL coach, John Madden, with an exciting offer. We want you to be the face and the voice of our new NFL video game, and we will pay you $100,000 for the rights to use your name. But then the company sweetened the deal even more. They told him, You can have as much shares as you want in the company. Unlimited stock options. And Madden was intrigued. He asked them, What do you mean I can have as many shares as I want? Do I get them for free? And they tell him, No, Mr. Madden. You can buy them at the current market value, which was about $0.50 a share at that time. Madden thought about it for a moment, and then he said, I gave you my time. I'm not going to give you my money. Just pay me the $100,000 and forget about the stocks. What followed was video game history. The company named the game Madden NFL, and it went on to become one of the most successful franchises of all time, generating over $7 billion in sales and selling more than 120 million video games around the world. Today, Madden NFL is not just a game. It's a cultural institution. Had Madden taken the stock deal instead of the money, he could have owned about 10% of the company, making him worth over $4 billion. But instead, he took the money upfront. He chose the short-term win over the long-term reward. And this story is a powerful metaphor for life. So often we are tempted by a fleeting moment of pleasure, and we end up forfeiting so much more, down the road. It's not easy turning away from instant gratification. But the Mir Mashgiach, R’ Yerucham, writes something so powerful, If you place all your Maasim Tovim, all your Torah, all your Chesed, all your Mitzvos, done without difficulty on one side of the scale, and just one small deed done with difficulty on the other side of the scale, that one deed, done with hardship, would outweigh all those deeds done without hardship. In the eyes of Hashem, that one act of Mesirus Nefesh is more valuable than all your deeds done without Mesirus Nefesh. It's not easy looking away from something inappropriate that grabs our attention. But if you walk away from a $100,000 temptation now, your reward will be $4 billion later.