THE SALE WAS $70. THE MOMENT WAS WORTH MORE.
THE SALE WAS $70. THE MOMENT WAS WORTH MORE.
The other day, my cousin and I delivered a chair to a gentleman who had recently gone through emergency surgery.
On paper, it was pretty simple.
I had a chair.
He needed a chair.
We agreed on a price.
$70.
We delivered it.
Transaction complete.
Except that isn't really what happened.
When we arrived, he was excited.
Not just about the chair.
He wanted to talk. He wanted to show us what he had been through with his surgery.
And trust me...
Whether I wanted to see it or not, I got to see it. LOL.
But somewhere in the middle of that encounter, something changed for me.
I had things on my mind.
Things I needed to do.
Places I needed to go.
Problems I needed to solve.
Money I needed to make.
That's the reality of where I am right now.
I'm building Russell's Hustles while I'm living the story I'm eventually going to tell.
There are bills.
There is uncertainty.
There is pressure.
There are days when I desperately need something to sell.
And when you're carrying all of that, it becomes very easy to look at the person standing in front of you and see only the transaction.
Sale completed.
Money collected.
Next.
But something inside me said:
Stop.
So I did.
I stopped thinking about what I needed to do next.
I stopped thinking about what I needed.
I looked this man directly in the eyes.
I softened my expression.
And while we were still holding that handshake, I listened.
Really listened.
I could feel how excited he was about that chair.
It wasn't simply another piece of furniture to him.
Because of what he had just been through, that chair was going to make something in his life a little easier.
And then something happened.
His expression softened too.
For a brief moment, it wasn't buyer and seller anymore.
It was simply two people standing there together.
And without either one of us saying the words, that handshake seemed to say:
I hear you.
I see you.
I've thought about that moment several times since.
Because I believe it showed me something about why I love what I'm doing.
SOMETIMES THE ITEM IS JUST HOW WE MEET
Russell's Hustles obviously has to make money.
This is a business.
I have bills to pay.
I want this business to grow.
I want sales.
I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
But I'm beginning to understand that money isn't always the most valuable thing generated by a transaction.
Sometimes the item is simply how two people's paths cross.
A chair.
A tool.
A rug.
Something somebody found on my website.
Something I found sitting beside the road.
Something somebody else was throwing away.
Something ordinary can become the reason two people who otherwise never would have met suddenly find themselves standing in the same place.
And for a few minutes, there is an opportunity for something more.
That's something I don't want to lose as this business grows.
MY MINISTRY MAY LOOK DIFFERENT THAN I EXPECTED
I've spent a lot of my life thinking about purpose.
Calling.
Ministry.
What God wants me to do with my life.
And I'm beginning to wonder if I've sometimes made those things more complicated than they needed to be.
Maybe ministry isn't always standing behind a pulpit.
Maybe sometimes ministry looks like delivering a chair.
Maybe it's listening to somebody's story when you're in a hurry.
Maybe it's noticing that the person buying something from you needs something that isn't listed for sale.
Maybe it's a handshake held a few seconds longer.
Maybe it's being quiet long enough to hear my Heavenly Father say:
Stay here for a moment.
Listen.
This matters.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
And sometimes we simply get the privilege of being the vessel He chooses to work through.
I DON'T WANT TO BECOME TOO BUSY TO SEE PEOPLE
I hope Russell's Hustles becomes successful.
I hope there are days when orders are coming in faster than I can pack them.
I hope this little website we're building becomes something much bigger than what you're looking at today.
I hope the risks I'm taking right now eventually make sense when looking backward.
But I also hope I never become so focused on building the business that I stop seeing the people who helped build it.
Because behind every order number is a person.
Behind every Marketplace message is a person.
Behind every sale is a story I probably know nothing about.
And sometimes, if I'm willing to slow down long enough, I might get the privilege of hearing a little bit of it.
THE JOURNEY IS TEACHING ME MY WHY
I'm still figuring this out.
That's important for me to say.
You're not reading the reflections of somebody who built a successful company twenty years ago and now knows exactly what everybody else should do.
I'm writing this while I'm in it.
While money is tight.
While things don't always work.
While I'm waiting on people.
While I'm making mistakes.
While I'm learning.
While I'm trying to figure out how to turn Russell's Hustles into something sustainable.
And somehow, right in the middle of all that uncertainty, I'm finding moments that remind me why I'm doing it.
That handshake was one of them.
The sale mattered.
The $70 mattered.
The chair mattered.
But for those few seconds...
The person mattered more.
And maybe that's part of what Russell's Hustles is supposed to become.
A place where we find things.
Build things.
Sell things.
Share things.
Make some money.
Create opportunities.
And hopefully, along the way...
See one another.
Because sometimes the most valuable thing exchanged in a transaction isn't money at all.
Sometimes it's simply the feeling that another human being stopped long enough to say:
I hear you.
I see you.
And I have a feeling there are a whole lot of people walking around this world who could use a little more of that.
Opportunity Is Everywhere.
Sometimes the opportunity isn't sitting on the curb waiting to be found.
Sometimes it's standing right in front of you.
Find It. Build It. Sell It. Share It.