An Everyday Lesson from a Very Rich Man

(c) Staci Stallings, 2005

Four years ago I wrote an article called, "Living in God's Hands." It was about how God had led me to a seminar by a man who helped me to learn to market on the Internet. The man's name was Corey Rudl. There was so much to talk about in the story at the time I had to skim over the top of it and hit only the high points. It wasn't until this afternoon when I found out with complete disbelief and grief that Corey had died in a car accident that I took the time to remember the rest of the story. And what a story.

You see, I signed up for one seminar that led to a smaller seminar that Corey was giving. At the time I knew it wasn't unusual for Corey to speak to upwards of 1,000 people in a seminar, but this one was to be very small-only about 25 people. So I was excited to say the least, and I was not disappointed. For three hours we sat riveted as Corey strolled around the room, talking at the speed of lightning. By the end of the first three hours I had 12 pages of notes.

At the lunch break I dashed out and down the block, grabbed something quick, and headed back. We had an hour. It wasn't like I had to rush, but I was afraid my car would break down and I would be forced to walk back. I certainly didn't want to miss anything because I was dilly-dallying around.

When I got back, I was the only attendee in the room with about 40 minutes to spare. Corey and his small staff of about four were still working. Unfortunately something in the computer system had gone wrong, and it wasn't working the way Corey wanted it to work. At the time he was worth in the neighborhood of $20 million. In a suit that could've bought a small island, here he was crawling around on the floor under the tables trying to figure out which cord hooked to which thing to fix the glitch.

As this was going on, one of Corey's staff members, Travis came up and started asking me about my experience-why I was there, if I was getting anything out of the seminar, how many pages of notes I had, what kind of books I write, that kind of thing. Every so often, Corey would pop his head up over the table and ask, "Is lunch here yet?"

Apparently the restaurant they'd ordered lunch from was running behind, and as time dwindled down, their window of time to eat was thinning quickly. The "no" would come from the back of the room, and Corey would say "okay" before diving beneath the table again. This is going to sound unbelievable, and thinking back on it now, it is even to me, but while all of this was going on, Corey was asking me questions as well. He was interested to hear how I had found his stuff, what I thought of it as I read it, what things I had already tried, what things I planned to try. There was no end to the questions!

To this minute I don't know how he did it, but he managed to fix that computer. Lunch arrived, and he inhaled a sandwich and fries. With five minutes to spare, he put on his jacket and was waiting with a smile when the other people came back. I'm sure they never knew the chaos that had surrounded him for the better part of an hour. He looked like peace personified.

Yes, Corey Rudl was a very rich man. To me, he was the servant God gave five talents to, who used them, and they multiplied many fold. In fact, if you are reading this now, you can thank Corey for it because I never could have found you on my own. Corey used the talents God gave him to make his own fortune, and then he willingly passed that knowledge onto others. In fact, when he was married a year ago, he invited all of his subscribers to his wedding-for free. I didn't get to go. I wish I could have.

A huge, sad void has been left in the Internet Marketing world with the passing of Corey Rudl into God's Kingdom, and it has nothing to do with the money he helped anybody make. It has to do with the man he was. The man who had enough money to sit back and do nothing for the rest of his life but instead chose to spend his time crawling around on the floor, looking for the cord that wasn't hooked up properly, waiting for lunch that was late, and doing it with a grace and a peace and a kindness that defy human logic.

Yes, Corey was rich, but it had nothing to do with money. I'm grateful for that lesson and wish only that he could've stayed with us longer to teach me more just like it.

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Be sure and check out the Oct. 31 post about the free book. The address will only be up through Friday!