So tell me something, do you believe that an act of kindness can impact a person’s life?

Do you believe that multiple acts of (agenda-free) kindness can change a community?

If so, I have a project I am working on,  and I need your help.

Let me start by saying, this isn’t about spending money.  If you have the resources to support causes you believe in financially, by all means, do that.  However, what I am talking about shouldn’t cost you anything but time and maybe a little effort.

Here is the 30 second version of what I want The Kindness Underground to be  about:

I want The Kindness Underground to be a growing community of people who believe that one of the most powerful ways to effect real and lasting positive change in our world is to simply be kind to those around you.

When the opportunity presents itself, do something kind for someone, expecting nothing in return.  If the person happens to ask how they can repay you, ask them to do something kind for someone else when they get a chance.  By doing this, I believe we can spread a “kindness virus” that will grow beyond our imagination.

KindnessUnderground.com will be the hub of this community.  It will be a place for us to share our kindness stories (those where we give and those where we receive),  to inspire each other with ideas for random acts of guerrilla kindness in our world,  and to encourage others to bring the idea to their community.

So, you ask, what do you need help with?  …I am so glad you asked…

I need to know what our site needs to offer to help this idea grow.  What tools, features, etc do we need on the site to empower people to get out there and make an impact in their community?  What are some really cool things you have seen online (or offline for that matter) that you think are a fit here?  Please take some time to think about it, and then leave a comment with your ideas, I want to hear from you.

…and if you would like to be more involved in the creation of this community, drop me an email, you can get my contact information here.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

- Arthur Ashe (via my sister, Andrea)

We all want a better world – it mans different things to each of us, but we all share that goal to some degree or another.

We are bombarded with news about social issues, environmental issues, political issues, pain, suffering, hunger, and a thousand other things.  It can be quite overwhelming, and it is easy to throw up our hand and say there is nothing we can do that will make any real impact in the “grand scheme”.

Start where you are - You may be right, there may not be anything you can do directly about the situation in Kerplakistan but you can do something about issues in your community.  Look around you – I guarantee there is a need you can meet right in front of you, right now.  Are you concerned about hunger?  Find a local food bank you can help.  Are you troubled by at risk youth?  Find a kid to mentor.  Worried about homelessness? I bet Habitat for Humanity has a local chapter.  Look for local avenues to address the global concerns you have - Start where you are.

Use what you have - Not all of us are millionaires, yet.  You may not personally be able to completely fund your favorite charity, or be able to quit your job and go build housing for endangered womp rats full time.  But you can find a way to serve if you truly desire to make a difference.

If you can afford to make donations and fund grants, by all means do so.  But if you are like me, you are focused on trying not to run out of money before you run out of month.  However, you have talents, you have expertise, and you do have some time (As @garyvee says ” Stop watching @*$%ing Lost”).  Use the talents, time,  and (when possible) money you do have at your disposal to make a difference.  No time and no money?  Then do whatever you can to raise awareness of the particular issue you are passionate about.  You can make a difference - Use what you have.

Do what you can – This one will hit the hardest I think, it did for me.  Stop sitting around lamenting the state of the world, get off your butt, and do something.  You can make a difference, however small, no matter what the issue is.  We each have opportunities to make a difference every day, and we need to stop ignoring them, stop procrastinating, and do something today.  You need to be honest with yourself and really figure out what you can do and then simply do it - Do what you can.

Start where you are:

• Look around your immediate community for needs you can help address
• Where you are includes the internet – you can make a global impression from your living room

Use what you have:

• Find a way to apply the talents you have to help where you can
• Make time to make a difference

Do what you can:

• Decide what is within your power to do and do it
• Start today, small action can have great impact

This post is the start of what I hope will be a series where I do some exposition on meaningful quotes that come (or are brought) to my attention.  Please comment and let me know what you think of this post, as well as the concept for the series.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “crowd sourcing” coined by Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article, as I am sure you are familiar with the concept of “tribes” put forth by Seth Godin.  The question is, if there is a “tribe” or a “crowd” with a passion that matches yours, what are you doing to find them and help them find each other?

I firmly believe that the key to drawing a crowd is to be screamingly unique and completely unafraid to shout about your passion from any and all platforms.  …and if you can’t find a platform, make your own.

The impetus of this post came from a tweet by @lotay (follow this guy if you are on twitter, he is amazing).  He got me thinking about what really draws a crowd.  Take a look at the video @lotay linked to (you might want to bump your volume down a little):

A beautiful, sunny afternoon, some music, and a guy who is not afraid to be in the moment and do what he does with complete abandon.  You can see it happening, can’t you?  Do you feel yourself being drawn in?  Aren’t you in some way wishing you were there?

The person in the video is not a celebrity, and evidently not a professional dancer.  But he does what he does with such passion that it can’t help but draw others in.  Watch how the “tribe” grows, one or two at first, sharing the joy of the moment.  But suddenly it grabs the crowd, and grows exponentially.  That is the power of a passionate performance, and a core group of like minded individuals.  This is a living example of how your passion can become much bigger than just you and take on a life of its own. It happens when you are willing to throw caution aside, stop worrying about what people will think, and just dance.

We live in a time when the individual voice can become a world-wide phenomenon in a matter of hours.  The ease of communicating a message out to a world audience is incredible.  You can speak to the world, right now, and from the comfort of your own home.  If there is something you are passionate about, something you want to share, you have a capability to do so at a level, and with tools that did not exist one or two generations ago.  Imagine if the U.S. civil rights movement of the 60′s had a web presence.

You can blog.  You can tweet.  You can Facebook.  You can do this, and you can do it now.  Your tribe will grow, and as it does, it will drive what you do to keep it growing and enable it to fulfill the passion that drew the tribe together in the first place (we’ll talk about giving your tribe a voice in a future post).

Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.  Stop looking for a tribe to join, and start looking for a tribe to lead.  Use the tools available to you to tell people about what you believe in and let the dancing begin…

Related Links:

Seth Godin – The Tribes We Lead – on the TED website (this site is a sinkhole of time for me – amazing information)
Jeff Howe – Crowd Sourcing – Jeff talks about the basics of Crowd Sourcing (as it relates to business, but you’ll see the connection)
Mashable.com article – on places to host a (free) blog
Twitter.com – and if you are already on twitter, here’s  my twitter page
FaceBook.com – and you can send me a friend request at my FaceBook page

Do you have a (cost free) place that can help people find and build their tribe? – Post a link in the comments