Around 2010 I had just started dating a girl I had a massive crush on... We had been out five or six times, and if I’m being honest, I liked her more than she liked me at that time.
She was starting to turn a corner, though, so I was ready to pull out some big moves if I had to. For better or worse, I was never afraid to overdo it, no matter how early on in the relationship it was. She loved the Beatles and had told me previously how her parents had fallen in love listening to one of their songs. In her family, the Beatles were very important.
She had been following me on social media and had heard enough of my stories to know that I always seemed to be sitting in the front row at sporting events and concerts.
She called me and told me that Paul McCartney was playing at Rio Tinto Stadium and wanted to see if I could help get her some tickets. It was sold out and she was dying to take her parents and sister to the concert. I told her I would see what I could do and get back to her.
I didn’t have any great connections, so I just went on StubHub and to my surprise, I found four front-row tickets for $3000.
Keep in mind this was in 2010 and the real estate market had collapsed. I had less than $15,000 to my name. I knew I couldn’t tell her I would spend that on the tickets because, for one, it would look like a weak move... And two, she would never accept them if she knew how much I was paying at the time.
I called my roommate and explained my dilemma to him... I wanted to give her a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but they were also expensive.
Plus, we had to figure out a way to get them to her without her knowing I had paid for them. We decided that part would be easy; I would just lie and say that a buddy had given them to me.
My roommate knew how crazy I was about this girl. She was one of maybe two or three girls at that point in my life I had ever liked this much.
After a couple of minutes of trying to justify spending a quarter of my entire bank account on a concert I wasn’t even going to, he finally said to me, “Jimmy, it’ll be one of the best nights of her entire life, what the hell else are you going to do with your money?!” He was right; I was in lust, if not love, and this was the front row to Paul McCartney.
I didn’t tell her where the seats were; I just told her that it was taken care of. I think I made up some lie about my friend being the head caterer for Rio Tinto Stadium and he got them for me. When she finally got to the concert and walked to her seat, I got a phone call. She could barely talk because she was sobbing. She told me later that it was the best night of her entire life and a night that helped heal years of a strained relationship between her and her parents.
Ultimately, we ended up parting ways after almost a year of dating on and off. We had many ups and downs in that year. And even though I haven’t seen or talked to her in over a decade, I’ve never once regretted being able to give that experience to somebody that I cared about so much.
This next part is advice your accountant is not going to give you...
Nobody in their right mind would’ve spent that much money on those tickets at that moment.
But you don’t get that one back.
Paul McCartney never came back to Utah. At that time in her life, that was the perfect experience and I was able to gift it to her.
The next time a once-in-a-lifetime experience comes up and you can’t decide if you should do it, just remember, you aren’t getting this one back.
I’m typing this while I’m on a plane flying to New York for 24 hours to watch the Cleveland Indians playing in a playoff baseball game against the Yankees. I’ve flown over 20 times to a sporting event and watched my team lose. I just did that on Saturday for the BYU game. But I also just spent a weekend with 20 friends I love and we made memories of a lifetime.
Make the memory and go all in. Cause in the wise words of my roommate Ron, “What the hell else are you going to do with your money?!”