Bill Clinton our former president (remember him?) wrote a book called “Giving”. Now Bill may not be the best example of a man for my children but he is a very smart guy and has very good ideas. He also did a fine job guiding our country.

In his book he details how anyone no matter your income level can give. When people think of giving they only think of a donation, they think of giving something for nothing. But there are many ways of giving. It can be volunteering or it can be by choosing how you spend your hard earned money. One example could be buying products or services that you believe in.

Remember just 10 years ago how you could not buy organic food unless you went to a specialty store like “whole foods”. I remember in Houston I had to drive for an hour to go to Whole Foods market so I could buy the whole wheat fig bars.

That is a form of giving. I could have gone to the regular store and bought the cheap chemical filled regular Nabisco Fig Newtons. But I decided to spend a little more money and buy the expensive kind a little further away. At the time I just wanted the better kind and did not think of it as giving.

The reason this is giving is because the more people that do this the more likely the manufacturers of this great healthy product can make money and it pushes the market pressure to make good products. This in turn makes the product cheaper and available for more people. All because many decided to spend a little more money and in effect gave.

So look at it today, I can go to the Safeway organic food section just a mile from my house and buy the same whole wheat fig bars. Who could have predicted that? But best of all I can buy them now at a much lower price. So as a consumer you can do your part and give by choosing to buy and purchase products and services that are good and better for every one.

So why am I talking about this? Well over the past two weeks I talked to a few people that told me about members that share their training program. So they buy one plan and share the cost or trade for something. I also heard about someone that charges people for our workout details. A few years ago two guys bought a yearly membership together and split it. Then today one person on the forum asked a training question but had no plan yet. So I wrote a few words back about this. He signed up so I was glad he was not mad about my response.

But that does not matter. We know many people do this and that is not what bothers me really. We are doing well as a business and I am sure we will keep doing well and keep growing. What bothers me is the blinders some of these people have when it comes to consumerism.

Triathlon is a sport that many of us complain about. We complain how the Ironman telecast sucks because they just show people that are dying and sob stories and not the race. We complain that roads do not have bike paths for us to cycle on. We complain that our sport does not get respect. When was the last time ESPN had a triathlon result listed on the same day of the race? I do not think even the Hawaii Ironman results get a 10 second report on race day. You want to know why? Money!!!!!

Very few people make a living in this sport. If more people did, then there would be more marketing, more services, more of everything. Then with more money and people every thing will be better for us. Just like the whole wheat fig bars.

So next time you think you are so clever because you got something for nothing think about how you are really putting down your own sport and defeated the purpose. The same people that think they saved so much money by not supporting us are the same ones that buy products and services from multimillion dollar companies that send the money over seas and many times pollute the environment and do nothing for our country or planet. They just collect your money.

Think about it next time your spend your money. Where is this going? If it goes to something good it may make it easier to spend a little more sometimes and give to the overall cause.