There was a small boy; his father sold sweet corn to people that lived in a nearby small town. Soon after the boy was able to count, his father gave him the responsibility of counting the ears of corn and putting them in stacks of one dozen each. This made the little boy feel very proud because even though he was only five years old, he felt this was a large contribution. So as he was instructed, he made stacks of corn, each with exactly 12 ears.

As his dad reviewed a few samples of his counting, he went to a basket, got some more ears of corn and added one ear to each of the boys stack. This make the little boy angry and he said to his father “I know how to count, a dozen means twelve, now each stack is thirteen ears. Thirteen is not a dozen, the little boy protested”.

His father, smiling, gently explained, “When you sell sweet corn, every dozen is thirteen ears. We sell only good corn, but with the husks still on the ears, there might just be a bad ear we don’t know about. So we give our customers an extra ear of corn. We never want our customers to feel cheated. His Dad continued we want everyone who buys our corn to tell their neighbors in town how good our ears of corn are. That way, we will sell more corn and make more money”

The little boy saw other examples of people giving a liberal count in selling their products. On their farm they bought baby chicks from a hatchery hundreds of miles away. The hatchery would send the chicks in the mail, in boxes of one hundred. When the chicks arrived it was always his job, again, to count how many chicks were in the box. He counted every chick in the box. There were always 107 or 108 chicks, not 100. Dad said it was the hatchery’s way of giving a little extra, just in case a few of the chicks that were sent got sick. This practice by the hatchery was wonderful, and smart. It was a way to keep customers, and to avoid negativity, and to build its business.

Later the boy learned that bakers have long practiced a “dozen is thirteen”. Hence the term, Bakers Dozen. By this time in the young boy’s life, giving an extra measure was already a part of his nature.

Give a little extra and you are a hero. Give less than expected, and you put yourself on someone’s hate list. Everyone, yes everyone, likes to get more than they bargained for. No one, absolutely no one, likes to be cheated. Getting less then you pay for makes you angry, hurts your ego, and makes you want to bad mouth the business that took advantage of you.

There is little getting without a whole lot of giving. Generosity is “What can I give the other person”. Selfishness is “What can the other person give me”. Generosity, not selfishness, leads to success, wealth and happiness. The more you give, the more you get. Successful people are generous. Concentrate on giving, and getting soon becomes automatic.