By Glenn Dromgoole

One of my first books, published in 1999 by St. Martin Press, was The Power of a Penny: Little Ways Our Lives Can Count for Something Big. It was never a bestseller, but it is still in print, 26 years later.

However, I suppose it’s becoming something of an anachronism, given the fact that pennies will no longer be produced by the U.S. Mint. So maybe I should update it with a new edition – The Power of a Billion Dollars or something like that.

Actually, the points I tried to make in that book – and in several others that I’ve published over the years – are still quite relevant.

We can have a positive influence where we live. 
We can be kind. 
We can be generous. 
We can live optimistically. 
We can look at what we can control rather than what we can’t. 
We can do the right things simply because they are the right things to do.

We don’t have to be blessed with enormous wealth, power, or creativity to have influence if we recognize, celebrate, and use the gifts and opportunities we do have.

That’s the power of a penny — or nickel, or dime, or quarter, or dollar, or whatever. 

Glenn Dromgoole is the author of more than thirty books and has a new one coming out this fall — The Christmas Spirit. Glenn and his wife Carol own Texas Star Trading Company downtown. Contact Glenn at gdromgoole44@gmail.com.