The Traveler's Gift Read online

  PRAISE FOR The Traveler’s Gift

  “I could not put this book down. The story itself is gripping, and the wisdom is for the ages.”

  —Thurl “Big T” Bailey, Musician and Former NBA Star

  “Andy Andrews brings his message of success in an inspiring, entertaining, and most intriguing way. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know where it would take me, how it would end. The dialog flows smoothly and naturally; the people are very real. The historic examples are captivating; they connect with a reader’s experiences and knowledge.”

  —Peter Boespflug, Director of Communications,

  New York State United Teachers

  “In this day of constant bombardment by spiritual junk food, mental detours, and outright immorality, it’s refreshing to come across something that is nourishing, substantive, and inspiring. Thank you, Andy Andrews!!”

  —Pat Boone, Entertainer

  “It’s rare to find a book that you just don’t want to end, where you savor each page, reading slower as the book nears completion. The incredibly insightful seven decisions of success and Andy’s enchanting storytelling abilities make The Traveler’s Gift one of those rare few.”

  —Scott Jeffrey, Author of Journey to the Impossible

  “Andy Andrews has an obvious charming talent for weaving a compelling story with characters both familiar and impressive. The Traveler’s Gift touched me in a way no other book ever has.”

  —Barbara Johnson, Humorist and Bestselling Author

  of Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy

  “Incredible truth, creatively told.”

  —Nicole Johnson, Actress and Author of Fresh-Brewed Life

  “In The Traveler’s Gift, Andy Andrews has magically intertwined principles of success and truth, creating a resurgence of introspection within me. Each person who reads this book should purchase one for a friend and watch for the positive changes to occur.”

  —B. P. Loughridge, M.D., Cardiac Surgeon,

  European Fullbright Scholar, and Author

  “In the tradition of Og Mandino, Andy Andrews has spun an engaging morality tale. The Traveler’s Gift is a thought-provoking book that will challenge you to reach your fullest potential.”

  —John C. Maxwell,

  Author and Founder of The INJOY™ Group

  “David Ponder’s journey in The Traveler’s Gift will speak to your heart, enlighten your thinking, and motivate your life. This little book presents a powerful message.”

  —Norm Miller, Chairman, Interstate Batteries

  “The Traveler’s Gift is truly a gift to everyone who wants to succeed in life. Woven into this very enjoyable story are seven powerful, yet practical principles that can change your life forever! ”

  —Don Moen, Executive Vice President, Integrity Media

  “A trip down the highway of time—where every chapter leads you to a destination of understanding and personal success! Very Dickenesque!”

  —Michael Panepento, Operations Director, WorkPlay Theatre, Inc.

  “The Traveler’s Gift is extremely powerful. It’s helping me with things in both my personal and professional life. It’s made a truly positive impact—I have no doubt that it will touch many, many lives.”

  —Theresa Reagan, Executive Director,

  Children’s Health Education Center

  “In this short and powerful book, Andy uses a story to drive home important advice to any person seeking a better way. From the lips of one of our greatest presidents comes the type of advice that you’ve always needed to hear—but never took the time to listen to. You’ll gain wisdom in only a few hours from this book!”

  —Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer for Yahoo! and Author of

  Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends

  “The Traveler’s Gift provides a powerful and compelling road map through the highways of life.”

  —John Schuerholz, General Manager, Atlanta Braves

  “A fresh approach to changing your thinking! The Traveler’s Gift will encourage you to live up to your fullest potential.”

  —Dr. Robert Schuller, Founder, The Crystal Cathedral

  “I was spellbound. Andy Andrews captured my heart with The Traveler’s Gift.”

  —Gary Smalley, Author and Speaker

  “Andy Andrews’ book, The Traveler’s Gift, gives support to something I have believed for a very long time: The principles that underlie success have not changed in over 6,000 years! Andrews’ book is worth reading; it will engage your mind and inspire your heart.”

  —Hyrum W. Smith,

  Co-Chairman of the Board, FranklinCovey

  “Excellent insight into fabulous truths. A must read!”

  —Kris L. Thompson, Division Director of Artists Associates,

  World Vision

  “These seven secrets of ancient wisdom and current experience are the keys to success in life! Easy to learn and easy to apply—a great guide to the future.”

  —Brian Tracy, Author, Focal Point

  “I believe this book is full of insight one can use throughout life. Told with a wonderful story I know people of all ages will enjoy reading.”

  —Randy Travis, Entertainer

  “An incredibly inspiring journey! Andy Andrews epitomizes The Road Best Traveled.”

  —Dr. Denis Waitley, Author, Seeds of Greatness

  THE TRAVELER’S GIFT

  Seven Decisions That

  Determine Personal Success

  ANDY ANDREWS

  CONTACT ANDY

  To book Andy for corporate events, call

  (800) 726-ANDY (2639)

  For more information, go to

  WWW.ANDYANDREWS.COM

  © 2002 by Andy Andrews

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by W Publishing Group. W Publishing is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson.

  Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

  Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Andrews, Andy, 1959-

  The traveler's gift : seven decisions that determine personal success / Andy Andrews.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-7852-6428-6 (hc)

  ISBN 978-0-7852-7322-6 (sc)

  1. Conduct of life. 2. Success. I. Title.

  BJ1597 .A53 2002

  813'.54—dc21

  2002007835

  Printed in the United States of America

  09 10 11 12 13 WC 25 24 23 22 21

  Dedicated to

  Robert D. Smith,

  a champion—

  and the inspiration

  for this book

  In great deed, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass, bodies disappear but spirits linger to consecrate ground for the vision place of the soul. And reverent men and women from afar and generations that know us not and that we know not of, shall come here to ponder and to dream and the power of the vision shall pass into their souls.

  —JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN, 1828–1914

  CONTENTS

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

&nb
sp; FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  AN EXCERPT FROM THE NOTICER RETURNS

  ONE

  HEADLIGHTS SWEPT THE HOUSE AS THE TAXI TURNED out of the driveway. David Ponder stood alone on his front lawn looking at the home where he and his wife, Ellen, had lived for more than twenty years. David lowered himself onto the grass. Nausea poured over him as he felt panic enter his very soul. Like a serpent easing up his spine and wrapping itself around his throat, it wasn’t a quick, devastating attack, but a slow, gripping realization that life, as he knew it, was over. He was forty-six years old. He had no job. He had no money. He had no purpose.

  A short time later, David stood in the doorway of his daughter’s room. It had literally been a month since he’d seen her awake. Lately, his work schedule had been frantic. As a last-ditch effort to save his employer from takeover, he often left home before daylight and rarely returned until well after his family had gone to bed. Several times during the past few weeks, he had not come home at all.

  David gently placed his briefcase next to the dresser and moved toward the bed. His only child’s breathing seemed loud in the quiet room. Sinking to his knees, David reached out to stroke her hair. It was so soft. The Cinderella nightlight she’d cherished since her fourth Christmas cast an angelic glow on her perfect face. Jennifer Christine Ponder. “My little Jenny,” he murmured. David remembered the very moment she had been born . . . twelve years ago today. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand: 2:18 A.M. Okay, he thought disgustedly, so it was twelve years ago yesterday. A tear slipped down his cheek.

  “David?” It was Ellen. Moving into the room, she touched his shoulder. “I thought I heard you come in. Is everything all right?”

  David looked up into his wife’s face. Her hair was a mess from sleeping, and of course, she had on no makeup She wore a long white T-shirt that contrasted with her medium-length dark hair. Her brown eyes were sleepy, but she was as beautiful to him as the day they had met twenty-five years ago.

  Ellen knelt beside her husband. With her fingers, she brushed the hair from his forehead.

  “David,” she said again, “are you all right?”

  He took her hand in both of his, brought it to his lips, and said simply, “No.”

  At 5:00 A.M., Ellen lay asleep on her side with her head on David’s chest. David was on his back, wondering how she could possibly sleep. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever sleep again. For almost two hours, he’d told Ellen everything that had happened that evening.

  Late that afternoon, David and a team of management personnel had gathered in the executive conference room. By five, they had begun working the phones, feverishly soliciting stockholder support. It was a desperate, last-ditch attempt to prevent a hostile buyout by a predatory conglomerate. Final notice reached the conference room shortly before midnight. Despite their best efforts—tears, pleas, prayers, and curses—the takeover had been completed. All executive and supervisory positions at the plant were terminated effective immediately.

  A security guard had entered David’s office less than fifteen minutes after the phone call and offered to help clean out his desk. Within the hour, David was at the guard house near the plant entrance, waiting for a taxi. After twenty-three years of service, David had been asked to relinquish the key to his office, the key to the gym, and the key to his company car.

  As he lay awake, David thought about his life. He and Ellen had met the day after both graduated from Iowa State University. David had a degree in business and was determined to make his mark with a Fortune 500 company, while Ellen, with her degree in education, wanted to teach. For two years they dated. People often asked if they were brother and sister. David’s height was their only difference. He, at six-foot-two, was taller than she, but the dark hair, brown eyes, and thin body type gave them a similar look.

  They would have been married sooner had it not been for David’s insistence on finding a career job before settling down. He worked in his father’s shoe store as a stopgap measure while sending out résumés all over the country. Ellen had already been teaching fifth grade for almost a year when David was accepted as a management trainee for a chemical company in Dallas. They were married almost immediately.

  David became immersed in his work. He felt that he had found a position that would allow him to be in control of his family’s future. Ellen enjoyed teaching and taught right up until Jenny was born and then never went back. Financially, the family struggled a bit on one income, but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make to have one parent at home full time for their daughter.

  “Ellen,” David said as he squeezed her arm.

  “What, honey?” she mumbled.

  “Is Jenny mad at me?”

  “What?” Ellen asked.

  “Is Jenny mad because I missed her birthday?”

  Ellen put her arms around David. “No, honey. Jenny is fine.”

  “I’m pretty mad about it, you know . . . honey . . . Ellen?”

  David sighed. Ellen had already drifted back to sleep. The world could be coming to an end, and Ellen would have no problem sleeping. He never understood how she did that. She usually laughed and said she knew he’d always take care of her. If that is true, David thought, how is she sleeping now? Isn’t it obvious that I am failing miserably in that department?

  Staring into the darkness, David remembered walking the moonlit beach on the island of St. John. Their honeymoon to the Caribbean had been a gift from her parents. Ellen’s dad owned a lawn care business and had insisted on dipping into his savings for the honor of beginning his daughter’s marriage in a special way. And it was special. They walked on the beach and talked for hours. At one point, David remembered, he had taken Ellen’s face in his hands and said, “I promise you everything,” and she had not laughed. He had been serious, and she knew it.

  For more than ten years they prayed for a child, and when Jenny came along, their lives seemed complete. David put his energy and focus into providing a home and lifestyle in which his family would prosper. But his work at the plant, while it did provide a living, never seemed to provide a life. As David told a friend one day, “I’m working so hard to live where we want to live that I don’t actually get to live there.”

  As the years passed, their savings were slowly depleted. A computer business David put together with an old fraternity brother was gone in two years, and rising interest rates had soured their real estate investments. Subsequently, the college fund that had been started for Jenny when she was born was used to put braces on her teeth only six months ago. David tried vainly to recall if the price he had paid the orthodontist covered everything. Funny, the things one thinks about at a time like this, David mused. If I haven’t already paid for having them removed, Jenny just might be wearing braces when she’s thirty.

  David’s mind drifted back to the beach on St. John. “I promise you everything,” he had said. He felt the bile rising in his throat. David looked at Ellen, still sleeping peacefully beside him. I promised you everything, he thought, and now I’ve provided nothing. Quickly, David got out of bed, stumbled into the bathroom, and threw up.

  Around seven, Ellen woke up alone. Putting on her housecoat and slippers, she went into the kitchen where she found her husband sitting at the breakfast table. It seemed strange to her to see him in jeans and a T-shirt. For years David had been the first one awake in their family, and by this time, he had always been ready to walk out the door in a coat and tie. It was obvious to Ellen that he had not slept at all. “Good morning, dear,” she said.

  “Jenny’s not up yet,” David said. “Coffee’s made.”

  She looked at him for a moment. “David,” she said, “everything will be fine.” He turned and stared out the window into the backyard. “David,” she said a
gain, “everything is going to be okay. We’ve been through tough times before.”

  “I’m forty-six, Ellen,” David said. “Forty-six-year-old executives are not being hired anywhere except McDonald’s. We have a second mortgage on this house, you know. Your car is not paid for, and I don’t have one anymore. I get no severance from the plant because I didn’t opt out in the package deal they offered last year. We don’t have any money, and I don’t know where to borrow any more. This is more than a tough time, and we have not been through this before.”

  “So what are we going to do?” Ellen asked.

  “I don’t know,” David answered. “I have no clue.”

  TWO

  SEVEN MONTHS LATER, DAVID FELT LIKE A BEATEN man. The health insurance coverage from his former employer had run its course, and the part-time job David took at a hardware store provided little more than minimum wage. Ellen was making more money than he was. She had placed hand-printed advertisements on bulletin boards all over town and was cleaning houses five days a week. Every day for months, David continued to search for a job. The seemingly endless stream of rejections confused him. At least I’m on my way up, he kept telling himself. It can’t get any worse. But it did.

  That morning had dawned cold and hard. It was everything David had always hated about winter. The sky was the color of dirty water, and the below-freezing temperature, carried by a nasty wind, cut David like the thrusts of a thousand knives. Struggling into the used car he had bought with a loan from his father, David cursed at nothing and no one in particular.

  The car seemed to David a constant reminder of his failure. He had answered an ad in the newspaper and paid a high school kid nine hundred dollars for what he had hoped would be temporary transportation. It was a two-door Dodge Colt, mostly faded silver except for the right fender, which was black. The brake lights quit about ten minutes after David completed the sale, and the heater had never worked in the first place.

  Shivering as he drove to work, David’s mind was as numb as his body. Ellen had been up most of the night with Jenny. The child had suffered with a fever and sore throat now for three days, and with the lack of sleep, none of them were feeling well. Jenny, however, was truly sick. It was the fifth or sixth time she had been ill this winter. David had lost count.