The Greatest Return 

My good friend Mike is a venture capitalist. He has a portfolio of about five startups at any given moment. Some of his companies are worth hundreds of millions.  

You can imagine the surprise when I asked him to go out for dinner, and he told me he couldn’t afford it.  

He said all his money is invested in his latest project. It’s supposed to change the internet, or cybersecurity, or quantum computing . . . you get the point.  

He told me he would have to cut our conversation short because he had to get back to work.  

I asked him if he had any intention of getting back to his normal life.  

“After the IPO, Dave”. 

Then it hit me.  

Mike and I have a lot in common. 

Pork Chops Anyone?  

Mike can take the night off. He can use his credit card and have a burger with me. Then again, I can drive to the Russian town up north and have a bacon and eggs sandwich. Neither of us would do such a thing for the same reason:  

We’re invested.  

Mike gives up his money and his free time today for a lot more money and free time sometime in the future.  

I gave up on bacon and Saturday morning cartoons for a far greater joy in the future. On the surface, my risk is greater.  

Mike may see some money after a year of hard work. He may even fail, but he can pick himself up and try again.  

My sacrifice is for the rest of my physical existence. I won’t know if it was the right “investment” until after I leave this world. I will never see an afternoon movie on Saturday. I will never follow up my burger with a milkshake. I won’t know if this was the right investment until it’s too late.  

The Biggest Risk 

The most difficult period for any investment is after you part with your money and before you see any return.  It could be weeks, months, or even years.  

Mike goes through it for a while. He won’t go out. He won’t leave work early. He never gives himself a minute to relax until a sale, some funding, or at least an order comes in.  

Doesn’t that mean I go through this phase forever? I give up a lot of physical thrills in return for something where there is no immediate physical proof it will materialize.  

Why is Mike sweating more than me? 

The Divine Dividend  

These are the precepts whose fruits a person enjoys in this world but whose principal remains intact for him in the World to Come. They are: honor your father and mother, acts of kindness, early attendance in the house of study morning and evening, hospitality to guests, visiting the sick, providing for a bride, escorting the dead, absorption in prayer, bringing peace between man and his fellow, and the study of Torah is equivalent to them all. Talmud, Shabbos 127a 

Hashem gives us lots of dividends.  

Every time I recite Grace After Meals on a kosher burger, Hashem gives me blessing. He lets me feel His presence. He reminds me that this is His world. Heaven exists. He is True and His Torah is true.  

Every time I invest myself in a mitzvah, Hashem gives me a 1% dividend. Right now. No waiting. The reward is to perform another mitzvah. 

After a week of mitzvot, Hashem has returned 200% on what I invested. This dividend is the fruit. The vine is waiting for me at age 120. 

Pirkei Avot 2:1 tells us that if you take all the wealth in this world, the $100 trillion of assets, the fame, influence, respect, pride, physical satisfaction from leisure, food, and anything else and put all of your greatest desires into this massively intense ecstasy of sensory pleasure — it will not add up to the reward we receive for a single mitzvah we perform in His world.  

God returns our investment in Him every moment of every day. He blesses us with constant encouragement of why we serve Him. . . and it’s just the dividends on what He is guarding for us in the Next World . . . when everything we sacrificed for in this world is waiting for us.  

This is why nobody sweats the Divine Dividend.  

There is no greater return than the return to Him.  

*** 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, millions of sunflowers, and Matilda, our local camel. David‘s Israeli startup, 300 Marketing Solutions, is a lean marketing agency for startups and small businesses that creates and promotes SEO-optimized ROI-driven to the right audience on LinkedIn to make your business the star of the show.