Pay It Forward
The concept of "Pay It Forward" basically means doing good first and expecting that recipient of your goodwill to do the same...not necessarily back to you. Theory is that you would eventually get the goodwill back from someone, not necessarily the person whom you had initially helped. The key idea is that the world would be a much better place for it, and what goes around comes around.
This idea is at the outset is difficult to realistically imagine people embracing it and truly executing it. Most people only help others if they think they're going to get something back from them (usually within the short term, but certainly within the long term)...whether or not they will admit to it (some will even swear they don't expect...but I'm sure they had at least thought about it).
However, in the current age where people are all about "going green" and companies sprouting up to do good while seeking profitability (is this a fad or a new business direction? can the two really mesh or are they opposites? that's for another blog), it's worth considering how feasible this idea is.
This idea is like starting a chain letter. For every 10 letters you send out to your friends, you will find that probably 9 will delete it despite the scary copy within about how bad luck will befall you. You rely on at least 1 person to continue the chain. Otherwise, it would stop right there. Hence, to do this right, one would have to do many "good deeds" of paying forward and hope that none of them hit a brick wall. Granted, good deeds are probably more appreciated than chain letters, but this is a rather discouraging comparison.
How about seeds? I recently tried planting some herbs from seed. The bag looked like there were TONS of seeds in it (more than I cared to count). After planting the whole bag, I yielded 3 stems of basil. Nature's odds weren't very good (ok, I'm not exactly Ms. Green Thumbs either, but you get the point). And we're nature's creatures, yes?
Hence, it looks like if one were to embrace in this concept, one must accept that it will take many many many good deeds before others will do the same. But I guess it's better to die trying to do good than to do harm.
This idea is at the outset is difficult to realistically imagine people embracing it and truly executing it. Most people only help others if they think they're going to get something back from them (usually within the short term, but certainly within the long term)...whether or not they will admit to it (some will even swear they don't expect...but I'm sure they had at least thought about it).
However, in the current age where people are all about "going green" and companies sprouting up to do good while seeking profitability (is this a fad or a new business direction? can the two really mesh or are they opposites? that's for another blog), it's worth considering how feasible this idea is.
This idea is like starting a chain letter. For every 10 letters you send out to your friends, you will find that probably 9 will delete it despite the scary copy within about how bad luck will befall you. You rely on at least 1 person to continue the chain. Otherwise, it would stop right there. Hence, to do this right, one would have to do many "good deeds" of paying forward and hope that none of them hit a brick wall. Granted, good deeds are probably more appreciated than chain letters, but this is a rather discouraging comparison.
How about seeds? I recently tried planting some herbs from seed. The bag looked like there were TONS of seeds in it (more than I cared to count). After planting the whole bag, I yielded 3 stems of basil. Nature's odds weren't very good (ok, I'm not exactly Ms. Green Thumbs either, but you get the point). And we're nature's creatures, yes?
Hence, it looks like if one were to embrace in this concept, one must accept that it will take many many many good deeds before others will do the same. But I guess it's better to die trying to do good than to do harm.
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