Favours: Don't Pay Back - Pay Forward
How many times have we ever owed someone a favour? Ever seen Pay It Forward? Kevin Spacey as a teacher has a class assignment that Haley Joel Osment brings his own idea to.
Think of an idea to change our world and put it into Action!
Haley Joel Osment comes up with the idea of “Pay It Forward”. It turns the concept of owing someone a favour, into passing that favour onto someone else.
If someone helps you out, don’t help them back, but help somebody else.
It isn’t a new idea invented by the author of the novel, in fact if the article at Wikipedia is to be believed Benjamin Franklin is the first documented person to start the idea in 1784. There are numerous groups across the world running this initiative. I think we all have the potential to help each other out.
The amount of people and companies that have grown to know each other through the use of Social Media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn is phenomenal and provides us all with such a massive platform of support that would have been unthinkable even 5 years ago.
This platform of support sees tidbits of knowledge go from one business and add value to another business - and they thank each other by returning the favour. But imagine if they passed on this favour. It has the potential to build up to something massive. It should become infectious, it shouldn’t just build up two companies - it should eventually go on to build up every company that wants to get involved.
Reach out and help other people. Expect nothing in return - except their willingness to go out and help someone else. Of course - it’s a utopian idea, but what’s the harm in trying something so beneficial?
So to summarise the concept of paying it forward:
I’ll not be so droll as to show all the maths but if I help 3 people, and they help 3 people…after 9 iterations 19,683 people will have benefited. After 13 iterations the pretty much most of the population of Northern Ireland would be affected (1,594,323 people) - how awesome is that!?
In summary:
- Help out 3 people
- Presuming they say thanks - just tell them to pay it forward
- It’s probably likely you’ll need to explain the concept
Modesty is all part of the game but I think to get the ball rolling if you want to get involved and start your own chain maybe sending out a message on Facebook or Twitter along the lines of “If you need a hand, let me know, consider it a favour to pass on to someone else #pif”
Let’s get #pif trending. Go. Help. Now!
