The three little words that can change your day: “I found cash!”
What? You were thinking about those other three little words? Well picture this, if you will: opening an envelope of found money; reaching your hand into your jacket to find a forgotten $20; finding money on the street, or being the recipient of the kindness of a stranger buying your coffee at Starbucks. It changes your whole day; heck, when I find a penny I do a shout out of gratitude and thank the universe for providing me with a wink of abundance. You should see my little dance for dimes and quarters, embarrassing as it is.
Twitter user @HiddenCash has created exactly that, a social media frenzy in San Francisco by taping envelopes filled with cash around town and tweeting clues to their whereabouts. All he asks of the recipients is to consider paying it forward.
The anonymous man on Twitter went from a couple hundred followers to over 80,000 in a weekend through his creative scavenger hunt to find money. It has all the makings of a great tale: acts of kindness, solving puzzles, creating happiness, a “rags to riches” social media following, and paying it forward. I think that’s a win-win-win. Win.
The Associated Press’s Terry Collins writes:
“Hidden Cash’s anonymous creator said his giveaways are a “social experiment for good.” He claims to make his money off San Francisco’s hot and lucrative real estate market and hopes that winners also “pay it forward.”
Best use of social media ever.
Best social experiment for good.
Now this is the kind of story that makes us all feel good. A positive story, and we can all use more of that. How could each of us do something creative and be a social experiment for positive? Can we?
Here’s my contribution to the cause: I’m asking people to do an act of kindness and share it on social media with the hashtag #WW. Why Wednesday? After spending six years in college working the crisis hotline I saw how many calls increased on Wednesdays, and it’s also the highest day of completed suicides per week. According to a study in 2009 published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Wednesdays saw 25% while the other two most common days were Monday and Saturdays, at 11% each.
So what can you do to spread the love? Well, you could leave envelopes filled with $100 bills around town. I think my hometown of Denver would be a great place to start.
—modified photo Tax Credits /Flickr Creative Commons