This is an amazing story. Listen up.

Couple of months ago we held an exhibition Lagu Baru with all the proceeds from the pictures sold going to Indonesia Mengajar.

We also had three special frames that were going up for auction. One of the frames was ‘the one’ as in the biggest and we placed it as the most valuable item we had.

This is the picture, measured almost 2 metres long:

After a hot auction, the highest live bidder was rivaled with the highest ‘silent’ bidder (people that bid over the phone/envelope).

The silent bidder won.

Except me and my team, nobody knows the identity of the winner, which is one of my past clients. Let’s just call him Stu.

Ever since I shot his wedding back then, Stu is one of our most supportive clients. A really smart guy, and a great believer of our dreams and visions. He is always there for us, ready to support whatever path we take, long after the day I was his wedding photographer.

He bid for the picture because he also believes in what Indonesia Mengajar does, and he just wanted to be a part of Lagu Baru. It was quite a substantial amount.

So we delivered the picture to his office, and he hung it on his wall. Everybody love it, love the story behind it, and love the energy it brings to the office.

Just this morning Stu messaged me: “Ed, you won’t believe what just happen.”

“What?” I asked.

“I just had this meeting with this huge client of mine. Huge, and I mean HUGE business that this deal will bring to the company if it went through.

Remember how I hang that frame I won from the auction on my office wall? Okay, so the moment he stepped into my office, he saw the frame and was surprised: “Hey, I know this picture! This is the one from the auction! You’re the silent bidder!”

The client is a director of one of the biggest state-owned corporations in Indonesia, and turns out he was there in Lagu Baru.

“He loved the exhibition, loved the frame, and he was wondering who the silent winner was. We continued on blabbering about it instead of work, hahaha…”

Stu continued, “My family company is ranked the best on the fit and proper test for the project. This director was auditing my company before he finalize the tender.”

“Moments before he left the office, he just hinted briefly while he shook my hand, “I’m just here to look for chemistry.” And I must say because of that frame, I made quite a good impression. Hahaha…”

When I was told the amount of value of the project I was flabbergasted.

Let’s just say it is worth 5.000 times over on what he gave for the frame.

That’s five THOUSAND times. Make a guess and get a calculator.

Moral of the story?

Don’t ever doubt when you do true goodness.

Give. Share. Sacrifice.

Let go. The balance book of life will always sorts out.

You may not know when, you may not know how, and it may not be coming back to you but to another person, but it will never be for nothing.

So now Stu owes me lunch.

And a city car.