Sandi Mann - Paying it Forward - How One Cup of Coffee Could Change the World

How one cup of coffee could change the world

Sandi Mann

HarperTrueFate

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperTrueFate 2015

FIRST EDITION

Text © Sandi Mann 2015

Cover photo © Shutterstock.com 2015

Cover layout © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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be identified as the author of this work

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Ebook Edition © September 2015 ISBN: 9780008144418

Version 2015-09-03

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'This book is full of heart-warming, real-life examples of paying it forward that will inspire and motivate you to do the same.'

Charley Johnson, President of the Pay It Forward Foundation

Contents

Cover

Title Page Paying it Forward How one cup of coffee could change the world Sandi Mann

Copyright

Epigraph

Paying it Forward: How it All Started for Me

Foreword

Chapter 1: Paying it Forward – What’s it All About?

Chapter 2: Why Giving Feels Good

Chapter 3: The Power (and Discomfort) of Gratitude

Chapter 4: Selfish or Selfless?

Chapter 5: Goodwill Un-Chained

Chapter 6: Trying it Out – My Story

Chapter 7: For the Good of God? How Religious Communities Have Been Paying it Forward for Years

Chapter 8: How We Can All Make a Difference

Further reading

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About the Publisher

Prior to 2 February 2013 I, like many people, had never heard of the concept of paying it forward. All this changed when a friend in America posted on Facebook her experience of being bought a coffee as part of a pay-it-forward campaign. I was intrigued, and wrote a blog on this for the Huffington Post . The blog received over 2,000 ‘Likes’ and nearly 300 shares and is still being shared and read today. Clearly this is a topic that resonates with a lot of people – including me. I was hooked.

This book has been borne from this one cup of coffee that my friend Debbie was treated to. It is the story of the psychology of altruism and kindness, and it’s also my story, for I couldn’t research PIF without trying it out for myself. It has changed my world; I hope it changes yours, too.

Paying it forward is the one thing on this planet that all 7.1 billion people can participate in. The one thing that allows anyone, no matter what their age, race, religious beliefs or where they live, the ability to make someone’s day better. It can be a family member, a friend, a stranger, a customer, maybe someone you see all the time at the gym – whoever you choose. It can happen whenever you want it to; there will never be a shortage of people who need help or even a little cheering up. It doesn’t need to involve money – all the pay-it-forwards that Sandi Mann carries out in the last chapter cost less than the price of this book. It doesn’t need to make you feel uncomfortable and it can be done for any reason. This world needs more goodness in it, and any reason – no matter what that is – is a good reason.

Goodness needs to make its way to the forefront of our society and it needs to be taken seriously. It needs to be on the front page of newspapers, at the beginning of the news on TV with big feature stories and not the last 30 seconds of the broadcast. It needs to infiltrate our homes, our schools, our companies, our shops, our families, our lives – every aspect of our world. It needs to become the thing we get addicted to, just like we did with Angry Birds. This book, which discusses the psychology of paying it forward, should help with getting the message out there.

Imagine 10 million kind acts happening today that did not happen the day before. Can you imagine what that would do to our world? This book is full of heart-warming, real-life examples of paying it forward that will inspire and motivate you to do the same. Paying it forward, random acts of kindness and doing good, is something we all speak of but not enough of us back up that talk with actions. We want our kids to grow up to be kind and respectful, yet our day-to-day examples may be showing them the complete opposite. When people see good, they do good, as the extensive research that this book draws upon so clearly shows. The world needs more goodness and with every kind act you perform, someone will be sure to notice it and do the same.

Together, we can all pay it forward and make the world a better place – one coffee cup at a time.

Charley Johnson, President of the Pay It Forward Foundation

www.payitforwa‌rdfoundation.org/

When Michelle Hickinbottom’s 16-year-old daughter left her iPhone on a train in Birmingham in March 2015, both mum and daughter believed that was the last they would ever see of the £250 device. But they struck lucky – the phone was found by 12-year-old schoolboy Josh Brown, who handed it in to the station master. So grateful were the Hickinbottoms that they asked Josh to leave his address with the station master, too, so they could send him a £20 reward. But when Mrs Hickinbottom went to collect the phone, instead of his address she found this message: ‘Don’t worry about the money, just do something nice for someone else.’