It’s very early on Sunday, the day that Sami (14) and I leave for Mendenhall, Mississippi. We’ll be spending a week volunteering at the Mendenhall Mission, which includes a school and church that ministers to the rural poor in the area. We leave for the airport in about three hours.

In addition to about a thousand other things running through my mind right now, this has me thinking about how many people at Best Buy give their time and energy to making their communities better. There are tens of thousands. Last weekend in Denver, 268 employees participated in their local Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Next week, upon my return from Mississippi, I’ll be painting a local women’s shelter along with my WOLF pack. These stories have been replicated across the nation, as the passion of our employees benefits the world around them.

And yes, the company donates millions of dollars to charitable organizations in honor of these employees’ efforts. But I think the real story is about the energy, passion and hours that our people dedicate to these causes. Not to one singular cause, or one short-lived campaign, but on a daily basis. Not due to a company-wide mandate to make it happen. The work is conceived, planned, and carried out locally, driven by anyone in the organization who wants to do it. Multiply this a thousand-fold and you start to get an idea of the enormity of this impact.

Of course, this creates a challenge as we strive to tell the world about what we’re doing. It’s easier to get attention when we present a giant cardboard check to some organization in need. It’s harder to demonstrate the hours, the sweat, and the love of 100,000 individuals. So far, this challenge hasn’t stopped us. 

My hope is that we embrace the challenge. That we stop trying to use the easy metrics to gauge our success. That we stop talking dollars and start talking hours. That our pictures and our smiles replace our statements of pre-tax earnings and corporate giving.

Because our stories are stronger than the checks that accompany them. These stories deserve to be told. Even if that’s not easy.