This was kind of interesting I thought. Just yesterday I made that post about giving away money or resources to help people in need. Today I was talking with some other folks where we were trying to think of a project of sort to work together with and the idea of helping to raise exposure for a charity came up.

We all decided that was a good idea and so now it’s just a matter of choosing which notable charity we should help out in terms of aiding to give it more exposure. The main criteria is that we want to find something that doesn’t already have a lot of awareness here where we would be proud to help out.

If anyone out there has any organization in mind feel free to send me a message. If the organization is in the BC area in general that could work as well.

I was reading a story today that talked about some of the things people have done to make ends meat during the hard financial times. There were examples such as strangers that decided to live together to cut down on rent or couples literally living in different cities to try and find jobs.

That then brought up a point about the people that are in a position to help others during these times. In many cases it was items such as food and shelter that were being donated it seems and not once did I read that people were given money. For the most part, people mentioned that they didn’t want to be like a beggar either and would rather just get help with things like finding a job.

I was thinking of giving away say $100 here in a form of a help yourself get out of a slump type of setup but was unsure as to the best way to do it. At the same time, that did make me think on whether giving money was really the best way to do it. At the same time, $100 might not be much overall, but it’s usually the truly needy that would find ways to utilize that as effective as possible.

In my opinion too, it just comes down to motivation on how bad you want something I’d say and little things like this is just a way to get your butt off the couch. What would work out perfect in these types of scenarios is if you say offered someone what they thought they needed to help themselves get out of a slump and by the time they satisfied your requirements they actually ended up not needing it anymore.

Reminds me of a trick that some of my old teachers did. They told the students that during tests we were allowed to bring in two cheat notes to help us with the test. Example, could be specific date of an event, name of a person, etc. In turn, the students read through the textbooks to see which one was the hardest to remember and then used these notes to help with that. It was smart as many students wouldn’t even read it in the first place and this was like a way to indirectly trick them into studying for the tests as ultimately most students didn’t need them after too.

I should try that with someone. Example, for the non entrepreneurial people they often say they can’t find a job where in some cases they mention that they tried for years. Is there really truly nothing out there for example or are they just not doing something right? I believe there is even a show about philanthropy too coming revolving around billionaires which would be interesting to see what really works in the end to get people back on their feet.

Not too long ago there was a rebate cheque that I seemed to have misplaced. At first I figured that I dropped it at a place where I went to do my monthly finances. However, the admin person told me that they didn’t see anything. Now the cheque had my name on it and so for the most part it would be useless for anyone else.

Wouldn’t you know it, just recently I got a mail that had no return address and all it contained was the missing cheque. So I have no idea where the person found it or who it was. All I know is that they actually took the time and spent money on a stamp to send it to me. I don’t even know who to thank either since there was no return address.

Nice to be a Canadian as people often say that you are very likely to get someone who is willing to try and return things like a lost wallet here in Canada. Kind of reminds me why I usually go out of my way to try and help others as much as possible too.

Recently here there was this lottery jackpot for about $34 million and as you can imagine tons of people flocked to buy a ticket in hopes of winning it. There were a couple of winners and one story in particular was inspiring to me. Essentially, one person named Jorma Hogbacka won the lottery and has publicly said that what he planned to do with some of his winnings was that he was going to give about $30,000 to some Tim Horton employees just for getting his coffee orders right over the years.

I love reading stories like that personally as you have to have a good sense of value/appreciation for the things around your life I’d say to even have the thought of doing things like that. On a side note, apparently he wasn’t too surprised about the winning as he claimed that a psychic told him that he was going to eventually win over two decades ago except he wasn’t given a date. I hope that isn’t a sign that he will be gullible with his money going forward.

But in general, this story reminded me how most people that I know who have ambitious plans to earn a lot financially always seem to have some kind of list of the people they want to help back in this way too when the time comes. I’m not talking about one of those “If I win a million dollars I’ll give you some” goals but rather it’s almost like they want to reach that goal for themselves and the people around them too.

Example, it could be to help out family members, wanting to create something to enhance people’s lives, etc. That kind of goes back to the give more to receive more mentality I suppose.

Recently I was looking for some volunteer help for a fun project and a person I knew seemed very motivated to try and help. It seemed like he was really going above and beyond and I commented on how I was in his debt now as a way of implying if he ever needed any help I would equally go above and beyond as well.

Now when I thought about it, usually what people do to pay back others in these cases is by using something of monetary value such as treating them to dinner. So that was actually my first reaction as you often feel it is necessary to compensate people back in some financial way to help warrant their time.

In the end, he told me to pay him back by making sure I attend this reunion event. Err….still feels like I owe something still.