Cover of Pay it Forward
This post is a little about a writing contest.
It’s mostly about being a better, happier and richer person.
Over at Market My Words, there’s a great contest for writers. The author will pluck the right query and sample from the entries and push the winner’s name to her agent. It’s a chance to get out of the slush pile. If your manuscript is worthy, this contest could save you an awful lot of time and energy.
What pulled my attention was that she called it the Pay It Forward Contest. Do you remember the movie? (SPOILER ALERT) It wasn’t cynical. It was inspiring. It might have caught on even larger if the ending hadn’t been such a downer. Still, it was a reminder we must all use our time well.
And it made me think of how I’ve been paid forward. I have a very successful friend. By the force of his mind and personality, he’s achieved a lot and continues to achieve a lot. People are always glad to see him coming. He’s gone out of his way to help me on several occasions. That spirit defines him and, precisely because he is so generous with his advice, time and money, his success is multiplied however you choose to measure it.
Too often we associate business success with a dog-eat-dog mentality. To succeed, we’re often told, others must fail. Instead, my friend looks for opportunities to reach out to people. He helps them and in turn, he is helped. He’s genuinely interested in other people’s problems and tries to help them.
It takes very little effort to slip into the human network to, with kindness, grease the wheels of interaction and eliminate friction. S.R. Johannes, the author of the Pay It Forward Contest is doing it. Though I must decline to specify how I’m doing the same, I can tell you I’m already on it (promise!)
You know what’s great about paying it forward?
It feels fantastic!
Key question:
Somebody’s helped you at some point.
How are you paying it forward?
Related Articles
- Random Acts Of Kindness 31 – Locker Room Love [Michael Turner] (ecademy.com)
- Pay It Forward Green (ourdailygreenlife.blogspot.com)
- Patrick House: Biggest Loser Winner Season 10! (rightcelebrity.com)
- The (Unlikely) Economics of Your Book Becoming a Movie (dailyfinance.com)
- If you love somebody…show it !! (dialoguewithyou.wordpress.com)
- A 14-year-old girl pays it forward (theprovince.com)
Filed under: agents, authors, Contest announcement, DIY, movies, writing contests, Arts, Pay It Forward, Writers Resources, writing contest
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