What makes one give?
For me, it's a combination of gratitude, abundance, and inspiration in the surrounding.
I love helping others in a way that helps them grow. In a feedback loop, their growth helps me to grow... recursive. Yet, I rarely touched the financial part. Still, I wanted to share gratitude with the community, that helps me every day to get where I am now. I'm very grateful to be part of it.
It felt right, so I thought...
...what the hell, let's do it!
In 5 minutes, around midnight, the tweet was ready. I pushed the "Tweet" button and let message go out in the world and let it live its own story:
I'll pay for 5 people to receive an online course/subscription of their choice (each up to $249)
— Tomas Votruba (@VotrubaT) July 18, 2020
❤️️ Like this tweet & I will pick 5 winners by Monday 6 PM CET 🚀
Appreciate a RT to spread the word
cc @javiereguiluz @Ocramius@matthiasnoback @michellesanver @enunomaduro
I was excited how this evolves but scared of the feedback. So I just peeked at the notifications number on Tweetdeck. Only nine reactions? Oh, now, it's dead. I was sad and crushed. Maybe I put something wrong. Maybe I forgot to tweet it, I thought.
So I opened Twitter and looked for comments with feedback, what's wrong. 9 was a count of tweets with some notification, not the total number of notifications.
There were over 50 retweets already. In a couple of hours, as people start to wake up on Sunday morning, the tweet had over 200 retweets and 600 likes! Oh many, this escalated quickly.
It was much faster and more than I ever imagined, but it was good.
I was surprised, how many people wanted to share their prize with others:
I’ll take the prize and split for 2 friends. Fortunanetly i’m able to purchase what i think i need. It wasnt always like that, and also love to do the same here and there!
— João Patrício (@ijpatricio) July 19, 2020
Thank you Tomas ❤️❤️❤️
I was so touched by reactions that I've decided to raise the limit of 5 to 9 people.
"I'm mstrYoda_ from twitter. You picked me as one of the winners. As I told you, I want to give it to another person who needs it."
I loved that!
Please go for it! That's so generous of you. Just send me emails + gift link to courses, and I'll handle it.
To support your generosity and help your circle, I'm raising the limit to 400 €.
After a few days and emails, we managed to give 16 more people a course on Udemy.
I've got so many grateful emails, that my serotonin reserves were empty soon:
"It is a big help indeed for me, especially in the time of the pandemic. Money matters all the time, and I have a pregnant wife also to sustain all of her needs, and your perks will help me to save money and time."
Trust this finds you well. Thank you so much for the random act of kindness that you are doing to total strangers like me. I am so grateful.
I don't know what to say! You do care, and that's a great gesture
Last but not least, I'd like to thank everyone who retweeted only to spread the message to their circles and wanted to help others. In the end, we could help together to 25 people, who would not have this change otherwise. That's a good job done!
Many courses don't allow buying a gift. You have to contact support and ask if they can configure it in the database to some other email than the one you paid it from. It can be a nightmare, which is not what you want if you want to give away.
Saying that, pick a set of courses that have an easy way to buy gifts: Udemy and Laracasts were very helpful. Also, you can configure the invoice easily.
The two days limit to retweet was too much. It spread too far, and it was pretty hard to pick five winners out of 1 000 people. I'd go with Jamie's strategy with limit of couple of hours
We all live in this world together. Whatever country, DNA, or social status. The world is not in crisis; our humanity is. Now it's the best time to act and do something about it. Help a neighbor get their food list, buy a friend a beer, buy stranger food, or give whatever you want. The further unexpected help out of your circles, the better.
I spent some money, but I got much more joy, a feeling of community, and fantastic feedback on this random act of kindness.
Now, it's time to help each other. I thank you in advance!
Happy giving!
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