A 19-year-old young man who was making the minimum wage in September, 2013 taught a billionaire what integrity looks like.
Joey Prusak was working the counter at a Dairy Queen in Hopkins, Minnesota, when he noticed something that made his stomach turn.
A blind customer had just finished ordering. As the man turned to walk away, a $20 bill slipped from his pocket and floated to the floor. He had no idea.
Joey expected what would happen next. The woman standing behind the blind man would tap his shoulder and hand him his money back. That’s not what happened. Instead, she looked directly at the blind man struggling to put his wallet away. She watched him walk past her. Then she bent down, picked up the $20, and slipped it into her purse.
Joey couldn’t believe what he just witnessed. When the woman stepped up to the counter to order, Joey did something that could have gotten him fired. He looked her in the eye and asked her to return the money to the man she had just stolen from.
She refused. She claimed the $20 was hers. She said she had dropped it herself. Joey asked again. She refused again.
So the 19-year-old manager made a decision. He told her plainly: “I’m not going to serve someone as disrespectful as you. Please return the money or leave this store.” The woman exploded. She started yelling. She cursed at him. But Joey stayed calm. She stormed out without her ice cream.
But Joey wasn’t finished. He walked over to the blind man, who was sitting peacefully eating his sundae, completely unaware of what had just happened. Joey reached into his own pocket, pulled out a $20 bill from his own wallet, and handed it to the customer.
Joey made about $10 an hour. That $20 represented two hours of his work. He didn’t tell anyone about it. He didn’t post about it. He just went back to serving customers.
But someone else in line had watched the entire thing unfold. That customer went home and wrote an email to Dairy Queen. The email said: “I was in shock by the generosity that your employee had, taking his own money out of his own wallet to give to the customer because some other lady decided to steal something that wasn’t hers. Joey has forever sealed my fate as a lifelong customer.”
The store owner printed the email and pinned it to the employee bulletin board. A coworker snapped a photo and posted it on Facebook. Within days, Joey’s story had traveled around the world.
Then something unbelievable happened. Joey’s phone rang. On the other end was Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world. Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns Dairy Queen. The billionaire didn’t call to offer business advice. He called to say two words: Thank you. “He thanked me for being a role model for all the other employees and people in general,” Joey later said.But the rewards kept coming. Strangers started showing up at the store. A woman ran up to Joey with an envelope full of cash for his college fund. A man drove all the way from another town just to hand Joey $100, saying he deserved five times what he had given away.
Radio shows invited him on as a guest. Companies offered him jobs. The Minnesota Wild hockey team called and gave him a private suite for 20 of his closest friends.
All because a teenager refused to stay silent when he saw something wrong. When reporters asked Joey why he did it, his answer was simple: “I was just doing what I thought was right. I did it without even really thinking about it.” He paused, then added something that stuck with people: “Ninety-nine out of 100 people would’ve done the same thing as me.”
Maybe he’s right. Maybe most of us would do the same thing. But Joey Prusak is the one who actually did it. He didn’t have power. He didn’t have wealth. He didn’t have influence. He was just a teenager behind a counter, making $10 an hour, with nothing but his integrity and a $20 bill. And that was enough to remind millions of people what doing the right thing looks like.
Today Joey Prusak is a Senior Contract Services Analyst with Hennepin County Facility Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, bringing a strong background in customer service, leadership, and government procurement. Most of all, he brings Integrity – something the United States desperately needs today. To always tell the truth. To always do the right thing.
My Commentary:
WHY? WHY? WHY? Do you and I stay silent (other than gripe) when we see something at Dairy Queen or on television that we know is blatantly wrong or blatantly a lie? WHY? WHY? WHY?
How happy would you be if Joey Prusak was dating your daughter or granddaughter or was running your company? If you and I don’t stand up, take a stand and act, there will be fewer and fewer Joey Prusak’s around and your children and grandchildren will never see the America that you and I have known for a lifetime.
GOD WILL MAKE A WAY WHEN THERE SEEMS TO BE NO WAY!!
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Words from Diane on my new book, What Makes America America.
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