How Eben Pagan Turns Your Bad Habit Into A Philanthropic Act

This morning I rolled in a few minutes late to Eben Pagan’s latest live event: “Master Maps of Success” with Wyatt Woodsmall, Ph.D and Eben Pagan and was relieved that the five minutes I spent this morning painting my toenails red didn’t make me $20 poorer.

You see, Eben has created a “game” for people like me who suffer from habitual lateness. The game is that three minutes before the seminar begins in the morning, or when returning from breaks and lunch break, he cranks up “Lets Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas. That’s when the fun begins. By “fun” I don’t mean that at the sound of will. i. am’s voice breaking out with: “and the bass keeps runnin’ runnin’ and runnin’…” the seminarians are triggered to spontaneously join in an ecstatic hard-core hip hop dance frenzy. By “fun” I mean that ten seconds before zero, the whole room begins a collective countdown as people fumble furiously to reach their seats by the time the clock strikes zero. There’s a large glass bowl by the entrance to the room and  whoever is still standing at the moment the clock reaches zero must return to the bowl and forfeit $20. Eben then donates all the money in the bowl to Charity: Water, Scott Harrison’s non-profit devoted to providing fresh water to villages in Africa.

The amazing thing is that my $20 goes to providing an actual human fresh water for twenty years. I mean, my entire $20. Charity: Water gets private funding for administrative costs, so when you donate  $20, the entire $20 is spent on building a well so that women and children no longer have to trek for hours to the nearest sewer-posing-as-a-valid-source-of-drinking-water to fetch water, then carry 80 pounds of water back home in vile, chemical ridden fuel cans just so they can be supplied with enough water to survive. Your $20 goes towards fulfilling someone’s most basic needs so that they can be free to engage in more productive activities. Like, say, learning how to read and write.

I must admit, I’ve “donated” quite a bit of money to Charity: Water from being late at Eben Pagan’s events. Has Eben Pagan transformed my bad habit into an act of goodwill and philanthropy? Well…

This morning the conference began a few minutes late, allowing me the grace period to arrive “on time.” I’ll donate to Charity: Water anyways.

Today I am grateful to the remarkable people out there in the world like Eben Pagan and Scott Harrison who have devoted themselves to the service of improving and evolving the condition of our planet.

1 in 8 people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water

[Via http://whyimgrateful.wordpress.com]