Starbucks surely knows about choice! You could easily ask for a grande double decaf low fat sugar free whipped creamed white chocolate caramel espresso eggnog latte americano mocha frappuccino, if you wanted to. Last Holiday season, a typical time for giving and gratitude, they gave me a cup with this quote printed on it:
“As you put together your shopping list, leave room for at least one complete stranger. Then who knows? Maybe you’ll appear on somebody else’s list in return.”
You may ignore it, laugh at it, be touched by it. It’s all about one of the universal laws of nature: causality.
Some call it the law of cause-and-effect, or karma.
This law is as omnipresent and authentic as gravity. In the universe, nothing is wasted, everything is transformed. Everything is connected. No gift is ever given without being returned one way or another, sooner or later. Similarly, no debt is ever left unpaid.
Next time you can, how about giving something. Whatever: love, time, money, education, moral support, etc. There is nothing you cannot give. Don’t do it because it will come back to you in one form or another (it always will), but do it… for no reason other than just giving.
If you want to experiment a twist, try the following.
The movie “Pay It Forward” depicts a 12-year-old boy who has an idea to change the world. He starts by pulling a homeless man off the streets by finding him a job. Now the man has a moral debt towards the boy, but he tells the man to pay his debt forward to 3 other people in need, instead of paying it back to the boy. The help has to be major, meaningful, life-changing. I do something for you, and you have to do something for 3 other people. Then, tell these people who have just been helped that they also have to pay their debt forward, by doing something for 3 other people, and so on.
That’s 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243… helped people. That’s Viral Marketing, baby! Truly exponential growth. There may be some leaks here and there, but the churn rate (percentage of people who quit) is very low because people are being helped a way that is spectacular and they’re happy to help others.
It’s one way to positively change the world on a massive scale. Start the fire, and watch the world being covered with light so strong that even occasional rains and tornadoes cannot extinguish.
Wasn’t it Jesus who said, “Better things than me you shall do”?
This concept is so universal that it transcends all religions and all belief systems: it just is, and nobody has ever denied it. Sometimes we tend to do things for us rather than for others, forgetting that we are just One, all fish swimming in the same ocean and sharing the same resources.
Next time someone does something for you, are you going to pay it… forward?
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