Pay it Forward

I was at the store a couple of weeks ago. The guy in front of me had $51 dollars worth of groceries, but only had $48. When he pointed to an item and said “take that off” I said “here ya go man” and gave him a few bucks. He didn’t argue or anything, just said “thanks a lot” and off he went.

I have to admit, I half gave him the money because I was annoyed that he was holding me up. But it still felt good.

Yesterday a friend of mine sent me a txt message asking me if I wanted to buy his laptop for $500 because he needed the money for rent and other expenses. I don’t have a need for another laptop, but I did have $500. So today we met up, I gave him the $500 and asked him to donate the laptop or give it to someone who needed it.

I just added this goal to my 43T. I had an opportunity tonight to pay it forward and I didn’t seize it. I wished I had, so as a result, I’ve created this goal and I’m going to make a conscious effort to look for opportunities to pay it forward ongoing.

What happened? I was standing in line at the Las Vegas airport waiting for a taxi. Anyone who’s done this knows that even though the line moves very fast, there are usually 300-600 people in line and it takes 10-15 mins and a lot of walking to get to the front.

As I was walking down the line, I saw a young guy ask the driver of the cab he was about to climb into “do you take credit cards?” The driver said no, but there was an ATM inside. Flustered, the kid grabbed the bags he had just put into the truck of the taxi and headed inside. I knew once he got cash he would have to wait in line all over again. Imagine how nice he would have felt if I had just given him 40 bucks so he wouldn’t have to sit in line again. I’ll bet he’d tell 10 people during his trip about the random stranger at the airport who did him a small favor that saved him an ATM fee and 20 minutes of time.

Alas, I didn’t do it. Before I could talk myself into it, he was gone, and I was sad that I had missed the opportunity to feel good about myself and get some good karma.

So as a result, I decided I’m going to try to pay it forward at least once a month. This goal will help remind me of that. I’ll post stories here.