Is there really any significance to this? After all, unemployment is still at record highs, and housing prices continue to fall in many cities. It’s only significant that people are willing to believe that things will be improving instead of getting worse.

Hope is a powerful force. When hope is hard to come by, when the news media and the politicians are out there convincing everyone that the world is coming to an end, everyone loses their will to take reasonable business risks. Now is the time to strike, when hope is returning, and those who have been in hiding until now have not yet come out of their caves.

If you have an idea, a plan, a risk to take, what are you waiting for? In a few months from now, the playing field will be very crowded. Now it’s empty. Go for it.

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We all know that Oorah, ever since its been run by Eliyahu Mintz, has developed into a full scale marketing powerhouse, capable of bringing in tens of millions of dollars from all their operations. But what is it they do that we allow them to convince us to send them so much of our beloved money?

There are many lessons to learn from their operation – and we’ll cover them in later posts. Here’s the one that is the focus of this post:

At Oorah, we are the honorees. There are no speeches glorifying the rich and famous, rather there are countless expressions of gratefulness for the $5 per entry. There are no fancy parties to attend, no long speeches about nothing, no obligations, no one is forced or pressured to do anything. Deep at heart, we would rather spend our money where we prefer to spend our money, not where someone else pressures us to spend it.

Where would you rather give your money – to honor someone else, or to honor yourself? At Oorah’s auction, the money you give is honoring yourself, for there is always that minute chance of actually winning something, plus there is the good feeling that comes along with giving money on your own terms.

The lesson to be learned is quite obvious – when going out into the business world, make sure the person giving you the money feels like giving you the money. Don’t go get a job by a place where the “guy is doing you a favor”. That money is hard to come by. Make yourself valuable, where your services are requested. Hopefully, you can build up your reputation so that people are throwing money at you like an Oorahthon.

It is totally within your abilities to attain that desirability. If you are sincere, dedicated, and truly seek to help those who you are providing services for, you will get there. If you don’t, your income will be entirely at the mercy of the people who feel compelled into paying you – and that doesn’t put you in a safe situation at all. Ask any yeshiva administrator how secure they are feeling during this recession. And Oorah – why they sail right through this economy without skipping a beat. Why? Because money that people want to spend doesn’t stop during a recession.

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