The cool guy in the pic above is Chris
Not many people know this, but when I first started planning out the ItStartsWith.Us project two years ago, I was focusing on the “Change the World” idea, and time after time I kept seeing Chris Guillebeau’s name pop up. As soon as I read his stuff, I knew he was someone special – someone who spends his life doing what he loves and making a difference for others at the same time. Chris is one of the best role models out there not only for me, but for so many of us in the ISWU group. I’m proud to call him my friend, and thankful that he’s giving us some of his time today. Enjoy.
1. What’s the most valuable small thing someone has done for you this year . . . a tiny action that ended up making a big difference for you?
So many things! This has been a year of gratitude. For example:
Stephanie Zito took my book to Mongolia and got a picture of it on a camel… then she took it to Beijing for a photo shoot in the Forbidden City. 
Etsuko Tsukagoshi sent cookies for my book launch even though we’ve only met once.
J.D. Roth came to Chicago with me for the launch of the Empire Building Kit.
I met Jonathan Fields in Pittsburgh to speak at TedX (he was very supportive of me even though his talk was better).
The list could go on and on; every day I encounter small-but-significant acts of kindness that make a big impact on me.
1b. And vice versa – can you tell us a story about a small action you did for someone else that had a bigger than expected outcome?
A fun thing happened this week, actually. When a couple of friends put together a great business offer, I decided to endorse it with an affiliate link (I don’t usually do that) but instead of keeping the money, I’d give my proceeds to our Ethiopia project. I hoped it would do fairly well, but I wasn’t exactly sure how people would respond. My readers ended up raising more than $24,000 in three days — I called it The $24,213 Blog Post.
2. You’ve been all over the world. Which places do you feel that the people honestly and genuinely care about one another, and go out of their way to show kindness to others in ways both large and small?
Most of the world is fairly hospitable — the places that aren’t are the exceptions. In almost every part of the world, plenty of people have welcomed me and shown kindness, even when I don’t speak the language or don’t even have a good reason for being there. A few standouts in the hospitality department include Macedonia, Chile, and pretty much all of sub-saharan Africa.
3. Every week, we have Assignment Missions for our members. Could you recommend a small, simple assignment that every single one of our members can do right now, no matter where they are, to change the world?
First of all, let me say that I love the whole #lovedrop idea — so that’s obviously a great path to follow. But from my side, I’d add –
Sit down with a piece of paper and answer these two questions:
1) What do you really want to get out of life? (Most people don’t honestly know.)
2) What can you offer the world that no one else can? (Most of us spend our time focusing internally rather than externally; this question — and your whole project — is all about flipping that around a little.)
Then, resolve to pursue the answers — right now, wherever you are in the world. If everyone did that, I think the world would be a better place.
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As most of you know, ItStartsWith.Us likes to spin off side projects every year. And this year I’m really excited to announce the launch of another project designed to utilize the power of micro-giving to change lives: Love Drop.
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