It’s said that if you put value out into the world it will come back to you in multiples. They call it the law of giving and receiving. And while I would like to think that I have always made this law a practice in my life, I would be lying if I told you that my belief in it has been steady and unwavering.
But all of that changed with the launch of this company.
Finding the Perfect Name and Then This Happens
If you have ever tried to name a company, you know the living hell that it can be. And coming up with the name LoudMouse was no different. After about a month or two of banging my head against the wall, I was handed an ultimatum from my wife. “Pick a name by the end of the weekend, or I will pick one for you.”
I began to feverishly write down names. Most of which were pretty bad. Like Liquid Frog. However, somewhere in there was the name LoudMouse and I instantly fell in love with it. My head was spinning with all of the things I could do with it to grab attention like business cards made out of mousetraps.
There was just one problem.
The domain LoudMouse.com was already taken.
This is Where it Gets Interesting…
Not one to quit right away, I reached out to the owner of LoudMouse.com thinking I could perhaps buy the domain since there was no active site up at the time.
A few days later, I got a call from Lance.
Lance was the owner of the domain. And as it turns out, I was not the first person interested in buying it from him. In fact, by the looks of things, I was going to have to cash in my kids college fund if I wanted it.
But that’s when the call took a bizarre turn.
After receiving my email, Lance followed the link in my signature to my blog and somehow landed on a talk I did in 2014 for Hubspot’s Inbound conference called Be a Dick. It was the true story about my neighbor Dick and how I spent one year modeling myself after some of his best traits.
Something about that talk struck a nerve with Lance and without hesitation he decided to give me the domain name. For free. No strings attached.
Lance was a Dick.
The Mission Behind the Mouse
He transferred the domain name to me that night and LoudMouse was born. I didn’t have a logo. Or a clear direction. Or a website. Or any prospective clients.
All I had was a domain name and the blind faith of a complete stranger who believed in me as much as I believed in me. Maybe even more.
And that was more than enough.
As a result, I have built this company on the foundation of something much bigger than myself. Something that goes beyond the promise I make to our clients. Something more important than dollars and cents.
This company has been built on the faith that a complete stranger had and his belief that I could make a difference in this world with this company.
And that’s what I intend to do. Every. Single. Day.
The Law of Giving and Receiving
So, now when someone questions me whether or not there is a benefit to having a “give first” mentality, I tell them this story. Because if you are willing to give something of value, without having any expectations in return and you are willing to be patient, it really does come back to you.
In multiples.
