Taskmasters (工頭）don’t come much tougher （強勢）than Bob Thompson. For forty years he pushed his highway workers hard from April to December for six days a week, in order to finish the job before the first frost（霜降前完工）. Their loyalty, sweat and hard work （工人的精忠汗馬功勞）helped make him a very rich man. Thompson remembered this and returned the favour（報以湧泉）. When he sold his company, Michigan’s largest asphalt and paving (瀝青鋪路）business, he gave his 550 current and retired employees （現任和退休員工）US$128 million (about NZ$178 million) from his gains（獲利）. Even surviving spouses got cheques（遺眷也得支票）. About ninety employees became instant millionaires（瞬間致富）.

Thompson started the Thompson-McCully Company with US$3,500 (about NZ$4,900) his wife, Ellen, earned from substitute teaching（代班老師）. The first five years in business were challenging. Thompson didnt take a salary（沒拿薪水）. So why later did he give away so much of his fortune? ‘It was the right thing to do,’ he said. ‘You realise the people around you have gone through all the pain and suffering with you（與你同苦共難）. I wanted to pay them back（補償）.’ When the cheques were handed out, Thompson wasn’t present. He said, ‘I didn’t want to be there because it gets too emotional（會太激動）.’

This man practised what the apostle Paul talked about: ‘Teach those who are rich...to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others（囑咐他們行善，在好事上富足，甘心施捨，樂意供給人）’ (1 Timothy 6:17-18 ). Doing good isn’t a moonlighting (兼差）occupation, it’s a full-time job. The person of character is guided by the North Star of goodness（良善的北極星） that leads him or her to ask in every situation, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ And the answer is always: ‘Do the right thing by others.’

原文：The Word for Today，上圖：Feifei筆記，山頭圖：葉子