Do Good Deeds – Get Rewarded

Do something! Thinking happy thoughts and waiting for some benevolent force to pay up is a mug's game!

Do you believe in the ideas of “abundance”, “karma”, and the “law of attraction” or do you see the whole notion as just a load of “airy-fairy” nonsense spouted by “new age” goody goodies?

As you’ll soon discover – despite not being a “believer” in these concepts as mystical truths myself – I do firmly believe that giving is an essential part of an expert business marketing mix.

I’ve read plenty on the subject of giving in order to gain, and have practised it since I launched my first business in 1997 because it just seems to work so well.

But nothing I’ve heard or read in this time has ever been able to explain how giving turns into gain. If you’re like me then you may be unwilling to just accept the wishy-washy abundance explanation that 2+2=5. We all know that 2+2=4!

So what’s really going on?

I think I have a good idea why giving works so well and I’m going to share that with you here.

Here’s my explanation of why doing good deeds will improve the success of your business and bring you more wealth and happiness…

In my book entitled, The Gorillas Want Bananas, I share the top 7 things that Lean Marketers do to be successful. 2 of the 7 activities that I recommend are based around giving…

1. Giving Referrals
2. Giving Freebies

But, how can it be that giving stuff away brings you more business success and profit?

I’ll begin to answer this by first telling you about an excellent book (and now film)…

Reuben St. Clair, the teacher protagonist in the book Pay It Forward, starts a movement with a voluntary, extra-credit assignment:

Trevor, a 12 year old student, thinks of an idea…

“You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.”

He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers.

“Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?”

The maths, are based on the law of exponential growth using powers of three…

• Let’s say you can do three good deeds this month.
• This time next year there will be 3^12 good deeds done in one month. That’s 531,441 (over half a million in one month)
• Just think… what if 100 people started with 3 deeds in that first month?

Trevor also observes:

“It doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can just seem that way, depending on whom you do it for.”

There are 2 things we’ll take from the story above and an additional one, based on The Small World Effect, that ties it all together and brings it full circle so that we get our rewards…

1. Viral Growth
   This exponential thing isn’t something that was invented along with the Internet – it’s behind epidemics, whether they’re social movements, trends or diseases. Getting people to join your movement by passing things forward can create dramatic exposure and quickly.
2. Small Deeds that Seem Big
   The idea that the deed only has to be “perceived as big” is the key to how you can give referrals, provide high value stuff and do seemingly huge favours without even thinking about the need for a payback… By the way, it’s important that you approach this without any expectation of a direct payback from the people you help – if you don’t you’ll be frustrated.
3. It’s a Small World
   You’ve probably already heard of the, Small World Effect, 6 degrees of separation, or Kevin Bacon Game. They’re essentially telling us the same thing… It’s the idea that we are all linked to everyone else by 5 intermediaries or less. Recent theoretical work suggests that the number may or may not be 6, but it is certainly small not 100 for example.

Just think about it. If you know 300 people who each know 300 people who each know 300 people etc then it doesn’t take long to hit the whole population of earth within about 6 steps.

Keep these three things in mind and…

So let’s agree that everyone is linked by 6 steps or less. Doing favours and encouraging the recipients to act in the same way when dealing with others means that your reward will happen from unexpected sources and more quickly than you could imagine.

You’ll become a benefactor of the very thing you’ve started, only there will be far more good things coming your way than you initially set in motion. This is the combination of quick viral growth and a small world.

So, your marketing can relax from the usual and frustrating ‘what’s in it for me?’ approach to one where you feel good, look good and get rewarded naturally.

You’ll also soon discover that the more you give the more you receive so there’s no reason why you should stop at doing just 3 good deeds…

One of my favourite good deeds is giving F’REE information to people. So, I’d like to start my own Pay It Forward movement by giving you lots of free stuff here on this blog.

Rather than expecting anything in return from you, all I ask is that you do 3 or more good deeds for people you know. The easiest one being to share this link, www.leanmarketing.co.uk with 3 or more contacts who might benefit from these free resources too. And remember to sign up to be first to hear about the updates to this site and all the new free stuff we add!

So, get involved and see how long it is before you’re good deed is rewarded. Then plan to start your own Pay It Forward movement and be sure to tell me what you’re doing.
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