Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The Waffle House whisper.
[00:00:03] Here's a little unexpected story happened yesterday at the Waffle House here in Austin, Texas.
[00:00:10] That's Moose accompanying me on my little journey this morning. And are you ready to hear what we heard from the Waffle House? Here we go. I'm Bradley Schrobner, this is Thursday Thunder. And today we are going to tackle. It's.
[00:00:24] It's light, it's deep.
[00:00:26] Can it be light? Indeed. At the same time? Yes, it can, because this is light and this is deep, and this has to do with the Waffle House.
[00:00:35] I'm in Austin, Texas. I'm here with my son. I'm helping him get settled in to his next adventure in his life. He's moved now from the Netherlands to Austin, Texas, and I'm helping him do that. And yesterday at the Waffle House, we had a bit of an epiphany. Or shall I say I did? No, he did. I did. He did. We both did.
[00:00:54] At the Waffle House, which is.
[00:00:57] How can I put this mildly? Not gonna win any awards for Michelin stars.
[00:01:03] It's a, it's a kind of a divey little diner place. And I don't know, maybe it's a chain, I think so, but I, I don't really know. It's. Let's just call it, I don't know, two star, maybe three star. But it's, it's yummy, it's basic, it's good. It's. It's all right, right? It's fun. It's. Especially for me. The, My, My Euro self says like, ooh, waffles and hash browns and eggs and toast and. Let's just say they didn't have English muffins. That sort of gives you an idea of the ceiling of the, of the place. But it's, it's got character. It's got people there and they're, they're smiling and they're working and they're chatting behind the scenes there. Over there at the, you know, what's it called, the kitchen is right there and they're having a good old time.
[00:01:47] So we, we have our, we have our breakfast and we're doing all this administrative stuff here, right? We got Liam a driver's license and we got him a car, and we got apartment lease and banks and credit cards and all this good stuff, right? So we're busy and we're, we're occupied.
[00:02:04] We're cruising along and things are, things are good. We're busy and we're focused and we got, we need to sign this and we need to get this notarized and this paperwork. And so we have our, we have our waffles and our eggs and our, and our syrup which has a disproportionate amount of high fructose corn syrup, but I won't even get into that.
[00:02:23] And it's yummy. And so the super friendly waitress, she's, she's chatty and we're talking and that's honestly one thing I miss about the good old US of A. Is the, is the chatty, friendly people. And we're not, you know, I'm not, I'm not asking for an award, I'm not offering an award. We're just having breakfast. I'm not looking for, you know, lifetime achieve. I'm not looking for new friends. I just want to have a waffle.
[00:02:51] And yet, so for no reason that, that I could see, no conscious reason or direct reason or reason that I could understand, this, this waitress, she, she gives us our bill which is written on, in paper. It's on, it's on an old school. We're like paper and pen and scribbles and you know, waffle and more.
[00:03:13] And the total bill with our tea and so called coffee is $23. Right. So you get an idea of the place. Two people just had a full on breakfast and drinks for $23. So. All right, but then I was kind of confused. She says down below, Moose.
[00:03:33] Down below. She says minus 10%.
[00:03:37] So there's something like a discount or. All right, why is she doing a discount?
[00:03:43] Hi there. Good morning.
[00:03:46] Come on, poochie.
[00:03:51] So, but down below on the, on the paper check is, is minus 10%. Like, oh, oh, she's, I guess that's a discount. But then, all right, I'm a math guy.
[00:04:05] Then I calculate and the bill then is, is $15.
[00:04:12] Okay, well that, that's not 10%. That 10% of 23 is 230 would be down to about 20.
[00:04:19] So this, you know, that's more than double that. That'd be 20.
[00:04:23] So 230 times three would be, you know, 690.
[00:04:29] We're looking at like a 30% discount.
[00:04:33] So she didn't say anything. She wasn't asking for praise. She wasn't saying, aren't I giving an awesome discount?
[00:04:39] She's just offering up a gift for no reason. She's not expecting anything in return as far as I can tell. Didn't ask for it anyway. And yet what happened? What did it do?
[00:04:54] So we get to the car and we're doing the math and 30% discount. And. And so. And Liam was paying. I want him to.
[00:05:04] This is a whole different topic. I want him to use his credit card so he builds up his credit. And then apparently you. You build credit by not paying your credit card because then you show you can manage debt. And yet Liam is baffled with his European upbringing. He's like, I don't even understand the idea of credit. You have bad credit, good credit. I don't get it. So anyway, he pays the bill and I said, hey, tip according to the main bill, not the discounted bill. So not, you know, not the 15, but 23. Okay. Okay, great. So I did that.
[00:05:36] And Liam is so, like, taken aback by this offering this. This gift from the unknown. Where did it come from?
[00:05:46] What.
[00:05:48] What initiated? What triggered this. This woman, this waitress to give us a 10% tip. And then. And then it gets kind of funny because the math geek in me is like, so does she just not good at math and she thought that was 10%? Or. Or she just. She just like randomly picked a number? I have no idea. But it. In a way, it doesn't matter. It's not the numbers that matter. It's not the discount. It's not the dollars. It's the thought, right? It's the idea that she offered up something. She. She gave us something with. With. No. No request. No, no asking for anything in return. And she's just offering this gift.
[00:06:31] So on our end, what we need to do is know how to receive. One sec. Come on, poochie.
[00:06:39] Pretty dog. Hi.
[00:06:43] That's Moose.
[00:06:45] You smell my cats and dogs.
[00:06:53] All right, back to the action.
[00:06:56] So what do we need to do on our end?
[00:07:01] We've got this gift given to us.
[00:07:04] What we need to do is receive.
[00:07:09] It's. It may, for many of you, you might think receiving is. I don't know, I need to give. Bradley, you often talk about give. I have a one word book. I'm not going to give it away. But the one word book, let's just say, you know, so give. I always talk about give and how giving. You. You actually receive more by giving than by getting.
[00:07:30] I know, I'm getting into like weird math here, right? It's like one plus one is three. And in a weird way, it is.
[00:07:36] She gave us a discount on. We appreciated the discount. And yet the sum of those two actions are greater than the sort of conscious or worldly level of the transaction. In other words, what she did was beyond the value of the money.
[00:07:59] It was way in excess of anything that was conscious.
[00:08:06] And this Liam, the whole day he talked about it, we talked about it in depth. Why did she do it? What does that mean? And then, so here comes, here's, here's the crucial element. What are we going to do with that?
[00:08:20] What are we going to do with this gift from the universe that we received?
[00:08:29] And of course you know the answer. And it's a, there's a, there's a phrase, it's a little cliche. Pay it forward, which is good.
[00:08:37] I don't know, I don't like the word pay in there. So I want to, I want to give it forward again.
[00:08:42] We received something and here's another element. We need to be open, open to receiving.
[00:08:50] Now I know if you are not at the higher enlightened level where you are ready to receive or all you do is receive and you don't yet understand the beauty and the power of giving, that's a different, that's a different episode. But for now, how do we receive?
[00:09:12] How can we receive? And then we get more by then giving back even more.
[00:09:21] So we receive something, we receive this tip, this, this, this, this discount and then we are going to give back more. If I use the word universe, you know I'm going to get all woo woo on this. So you give back more than you receive. How about that? However, you need to be open to receive.
[00:09:41] I hope this is coming through clearly. It is. I've got my doggy here to deal with, which is distracting me. But the idea of this receiving and being open to receiving and then giving is powerful stuff. From Austin, Texas. Signing off Bradley and Moose. Bye for now.
