20 Times More Don Ghermezian

I want to start by saying I used to be known as the person who owns American Dream. Baruch Hashem, today I think I’m more known as the person who does the Vayema'en videos, and that actually means a lot more to me than owning American Dream. I speak a lot about the importance of giving Tzedaka (charity), and I tell people all the time that when you give Tzedaka, Hashem actually says you can test Hashem with Tzedaka. What do I mean? You will get ten times the reward for the Tzedaka 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 tzniut (modesty), I think the reward that comes from Hashem is even greater than that. I actually tell people it’s 20 times. 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.” They reached out. They have a movie that’s coming out. They called me and said, “Look, we want to advertise our movie. We want to do it at American Dream.” I’m 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. We had agreed on $24,000, everything; the contracts were going out. I said, “By the way, guys, before we finalize 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’d just like to see what you’re going to put in my center.” So they sent me what it was going to look like. I reached back out to Netflix and said, “Look, guys, I don’t think this one’s going to work for me.” “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 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.” “What are you talking about?” I’m like, “Yeah, we’re not going to do it.” Ten 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 is not even that bad.” I’m like, “Yeah, I know. You know the story I tell you about how we get 10 times the return when we give charity? We’ll get 20 times the return for this one. It’s even more important than giving charity.” I think you guys have become accustomed to a couple of these stories. It’s absolutely remarkable how it happens. Seven minutes later, my chief revenue officer walks into my office. He says, “Don, I’ve got to tell you something that’s 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 seven minutes before this. My chief operating officer was in my office when the chief revenue officer walked in to tell him that. 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.