In your life, you’re going to do a lot of things that you won’t directly see the results of. Most of these things will be small, some will be large, but there will be many.
You’re going to be on the road one day, and you’re going to stop in a little diner. You will never be here again; you will never see any of these people again. Your actions here are performed without a future agenda, and you will not see their results.
In that scenario, some people say – why bother to tip well, or even at all? I’ll never see these people again, so it’s not like I’ll get bad service in the future. My reputation in my own communities will not suffer.
That kind of person sucks.
Leave cool things in your wake. Kindness and mystery. Fun and cheer. Magic and knowledge. In that scenario, take out a $20 bill, write a cool fact on it, and leave it behind. Draw a mysterious picture on the other side, with coordinates that you make up. Create a mystery, a kindness, and knowledge, all at once.
Because that’s cool. And leaving cool in your wake is its own reward.
The Opportunity Machine 