What Really Matters, with Hal Donaldson
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Legacy means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it's lasting integrity. It's building and maintaining a history of greatness. It's making an impact on people and community. For others, it's dependable security and assurance in an uncertain time. To us, it's all of that and more. It's a mindset of brother and sisterhood of hardworking people dedicated to doing the right thing for you and those you care about of growing today for a better tomorrow that's what legacy means at southwestern legacy insurance group what does it mean to you let's talk legacy
Welcome to Let's Talk Legacy. My name is Gary Michaels. And today we have an amazing guest, Hal Donaldson, the president and CEO of Convoy of Hope, a global nonprofit organization that works with communities to address root causes of poverty and hunger. And that always has been a challenge that our world sees. According to Forbes, Convoy of Hope is among the 50 largest charities in the United States. So I'm just excited to speak with Hal, and I know our listeners are excited to hear from you today, too. Welcome.
Hey, thank you for having me, Gary. Great to be with you and the podcast.
Let's dig right in. I want to start by talking about family. Your family and the legacy of your family had a huge impact on you and the way that you are now helping shape the legacies of so many others. The story of your grandfather... and the impact of his actions on your family is a powerful one. How did that family history influence your own beliefs about success, failure, redemption, and other thoughts that come across your mind?
Yeah, you know, really, we have to go back before my grandfather and... talk about what happened to me when I was 12. And when I was 12, my parents were hit by a drunken driver and my father was killed instantly. My mother was seriously injured. She'd be in the hospital for quite some time, unable to work. Our family didn't have insurance, Gary. And so as a result, our family was forced to survive on welfare and food stamps. So as a young boy, I really experienced the pain of poverty and the pain of suffering and the shame of all of it. And it was really the kindness of people who really reached out to me. They just wrapped their arms around me and put new shoes on my feet when they saw that I have holes in my sneakers, brought groceries to our door. So it was really the kindness of those people that I think really affected me the most long term. My grandfather was extremely successful in his line of work, but he had really got full of himself and ended up losing his entire family along the way.
Certainly for me, that was something along the way that I did not want to replicate. I think the biggest impact of my life was really just living in poverty, trying to escape poverty. That really was the journey I was on as a teenager. I wasn't going to live like this, like my parents had lived. So, you know, I think that really played a big part in the formation of Convoy of Hope.
Your grandmother's advice seems to have been the guiding light in your life, though. Can you share how her words influenced you?
You know, she had observed my grandfather really just getting full of himself and making some poor choices. And her advice to me was, as you enter into the workforce, you just need to work hard, be a good person, treat people with integrity, do the right thing, and everything is going to take care of itself. You don't need to go and become a climber and where you are harming people along your journey. You just need to be a good person and everything will take care of itself. And, you know, that advice really was extremely instrumental. You know, my story, Gary, is I became a writer in my 20s. I have a journalism degree. I began writing books in my 20s. One of those projects took me to Calcutta, India, where I interviewed Mother Teresa. And it was in the course of interviewing Mother Teresa that she just stops me and she just said, hey, young man, what are you doing to help the poor and the suffering? And I figured it was probably not a good idea to lie to Mother Teresa. So I told her the truth. I said, hey, I'm really not doing much of anything.
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