As we travel through the journey of life, we may stumble upon a person who changes the trajectory of where we thought we were heading. Sometimes the change is a minor reroute, but other times it re-charts our direction. For Mitch Albom that person was Morrie Schwartz.

Mitch was a successful and ambitious sportswriter who wrote for newspapers, appeared on ESPN television, and did radio. He often worked 90 plus hours per week climbing the proverbial ladder. One day while flipping through television channels, he caught the Nightline program and on the screen saw a thin, sickly, white haired version of his college professor – Morrie Schwartz - with whom he had been very close, but hadn’t seen in years. He learned through the program that Morrie was dying from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Feeling guilty about not staying in touch, Mitch decided to call his professor. At the end of the conversation Morrie asked him to visit and he agreed, thinking it would be a one and done meeting. But the visit made such an impression on Mitch that he decided to return weekly on Tuesdays. From those visits he gained insight about what was important in life from a man who was dying. According to Mitch, their rekindled relationship turned into one final class: lessons in how to live.

“Everything that he felt was important were things that I was not valuing in my life,” said Mitch. “And so from that point forward I started turning things around.”

One of the biggest lessons that had a profound impact on Mitch was the importance of giving. He recalled times people visited Morrie with the intention of cheering him up, but before long, the tables were turned and Morrie would be holding their hand trying to help them with whatever challenges they faced. Divorce, love life, work issues, he helped them all. After witnessing this time and time again, he finally asked why he didn’t take their sympathy. Why did he give them more than they gave him? To this Morrie replied: “Mitch, taking like that just makes me feel like I’m dying. Giving makes me feel like I’m living.”

“Hearing those words I realized that if what made a man who had weeks left on this earth feel the most alive was giving, then that had to be true for those of us in our younger, healthier years,” said Mitch. “I started my first charity that year and have been deeper and deeper into that world ever since.”

Today, he has multiple charitable operations in the Detroit area committed to “lifting our neediest when they stumble.” He also operates an orphanage in Haiti, which he visits monthly. Mitch noted that he sleeps better on the orphanage’s four-inch mattress than he does anywhere else in the world. 

Mitch’s advice to find contentment? Find someone who needs your help and you’ll be amazed at how good you’ll feel about your days.

Listen to the conversation with Mitch Albom