That's all for now - £65,000 given or allocated

After 18 months of giving away £65,000, over half the money has been given to others and the remaining £30,000 has been allocated to a project to help over 30,000 people make a difference in 2010 (more details about this in 2009 when it is launched).

The giveaway has been great fun for me and has helped hundreds of people to have fun, be inspired and make a difference to help others. I would like to thank everyone who has played a part in some way in this giveaway and hope you continue making a difference.

It has tested people's thinking to consider how only £65 could make a difference to someone else and challenged me to consider what the most worthy causes are to support.

If you happen to have found this blog by chance, I would encourage you to read and enjoy the hundreds of comments, requests and postings that people have made. It might just provoke your thinking - which, after all, was the purpose!

That's all for now.

Enjoy life, be solution focused and keep making a difference.

Andy G

Do you want a medal or will £65 make a difference?

What a fantastic result for team GB - 19 Gold Medals in the Olympic games. Whilst watching them, I often thought about the effort and personal commitment that top athletes give in order to achieve success once every four years.

What about the support that is given by the coaches and people in the background who get much less recognition?

Who do you know that is perhaps an unsung hero, having given years of commitment to helping others, and deserves a medal? Would £65 put a smile on their face? What would they do with it to help themself or others?

Come on, help me in finding 19 people worthy of a medal and let's surprise them.

Andy G

Kickstart your thinking

The thoughts we have and the assumptions we make can easily limit the actions we take and ultimately the results we achieve. We can kickstart our thinking through the use of high quality questions, for example: What is the greatest difference I could make to help others with £65?

Choosing to be happy on the inside

Having just returned from a holiday in the Med. to mixed weather in the UK, I attended an open air concert last night - in the rain. Despite the weather on the outside, all was sunny on the inside as the company of good friends and the great music more than compensated.

It did get me thinking, as I looked around the crowd, that many of the audience had chosen to be miserable because of something external they couldn't control, ie the weather, rather than choosing to react in a helpful way and have a great time.

We can all make a difference to ourselves or others. We can choose to say, "It's only £65 - I can't do much with that." Or we choose to think, "What difference can I make with £65 to help someone else?

Keep sending your requests.

Giving people a pleasant surprise

Last night, my wife and I travelled to a friends house for what my wife thought was going to be an evening meal for just the four of us. Upon opening the living room door she was totally surprised that the rest of the Go MAD Thinking team were there for a surprise birthday party.

It is really great to see the look on people's faces when they are pleasantly surprised.

So what surprise could you give to someone who is least expecting it? It doesn't have to cost money to make a difference.

Put a smile on someone's face.

The purpose of our life is to be happy!

And last week, for my birthday, I was very happy to give £650 to 10 deserving people.

This weekend I have just returned from hearing the Dalai Lama give a series of lectures and question/answer sessions about important aspects of our lives - mainly about practising compassion, contentment, mental calmness, and being happy. As well as being an incredibly wise man he also had a real sense of pragmatism and a fantastic sense of humour as evidenced in his response to the audience question, "I am scared of dying - what should I do?" His answer, "Take care of your body - and avoid extreme sports!"

His equally pragmatic answer to the question, "How do I live an ethical life?" was, "Help others and, if you can't, restrain from harming them."

For me, maintaining my happiness includes helping others and encouraging people to make a difference - both for themselves and others.

What differences can you make that will help your level of happiness?

It's my birthday - have a present!

Happy birthday,

I tend to celebrate being alive and the good things in life pretty much everyday. So for me, birthdays are just another great day. However, having opened my birthday cards and presents this morning, I thought it would be nice to give a few presents, of £65, this week to people who feel they deserve it. So imagine it is your birthday and you received £65, what would you like to spend it on?

For this week only, you can nominate yourself to receive £65. Just tell me the reason why you feel you deserve it and how you would spend it.

Next week I will pick a few worthy winners.

How motivated are you to help others?

Last night I was runner-up in two categories of the local business awards and, whilst it would have been nice to win, I reflected on how easily many people give up if they do not initially achieve their goals.

Sometimes people need to involve others more. Who could you possibly help to achieve their goals? How could you match my £65 with time and effort (or money) to help someone else? How motivated are you to help others?

Contributing To Make A Greater Difference

Watching Sport Relief over the weekend puts into perspective what £65 can do to help people in difficult situations and sometimes I do wonder whether I should contribute more personally to allieviate suffering in 3rd World countries.

Recently I have been receiving a range of requests for £65 and have realised that I prefer to give to people who are willing to match me - not necessarily with money, but also with time and effort - to make a bigger difference.

Much of my time is spent opening people's minds to think differently, which causes them to act differently and hence achieve better results. So with this in mind I am paying for a couple of my team to travel to Macedonia and be facilitators for innovation groups at the "Uncovering New Solutions - Building Communities and Making the Most of Resources" Conference organised by Handicap International for family organisation leaders. I hope that this investment, whilst much greater than £65, will lead to greater differences being made.

So what genuinely is the greatest difference you can make with £65 of my money? Are you willing to match it in some way to make a geater difference?

A year later - still making a difference

It is now a year since I won the money and I have enjoyed helping many people to help others make a difference through the £65 giveaways. It has been rewarding to occasionally get follow-up e-mails, letters and photo's showing the differences made.I hope I have also inspired others to be creative in their thinking. Whilst £65 might not seem much to some, for others it can be life changing.

Who's life could you change? How creative could you be? Are you willing to make a difference?

Spring into action

Spring seems to be arriving early. I think this a great time for giving birth to new ideas and dusting the cobwebs from our minds to explore possibilities for making a difference.

One of my fellow Poker Face contestants has launched a campaign to help 65 people in her community think possibilities about the differences they could make with £65, so I look forward to receiving their requests in due course.

Come on, let's have a spring clean and spring into action to Go MAD with £65.

New Year Resolutions

Whilst I don't believe in setting New Year resolutions (why wait for New Year? - do it whenever you have a strong enough reason why), many people attempt to make a difference in their lives at the start of the year. So what differences are you going to make?

In 2008, why not use your thinking skills and decide to make a difference in someone else's life? If you would like £65 to help, then please post a request.

£65 for Christmas

I received news last week from one of the Everards Brewery teams who had used £65 to buy a Leicester Tigers Rugby Shirt and get it signed by the players. This was then auctioned for £500 which will provide 12 elderly couples and carers with a 3 course Christmas meal and Christmas gift. £100 will be donated to a multiple sclerosis charity and the original £65 will be given to another team in the business to make another difference.

Well done for demonstrating the difference that can be made with a little effort and teamwork.



What difference could you make with £65 to bring some Christmas cheer into the lives of others?

Turning money into more money for good causes

I have given a couple of £65 away recently to people who have requested the money to buy wool in order to knit scarves which will then be sold to raise money for good causes. Both people are involving others in the workplace (Boots and Royal Bank of Scotland) to achieve their goals and I feel that this is a good example of people contributing time to match the £65 in order to leverage a greater benefit for the end user.

So what difference could you make? If you are seeking inspiration read some of the comments posted in response to my previous blog entries - especially about the bees.

What makes it all worthwhile? - stories like this

Hi Andy

Many thanks for the cheque for £65 you sent to me last month. I had a great week giving it away and I learned a lot from the experience. I aimed to do something different every day and to 'target' a wide age range. Here is what happened:

I bought bottles of blowing bubbles and gave them to a group of older people
A baby had a surprise present of a helium balloon and was entranced and delighted as were the children with her
I gave money to a talented face painter (she was called Namnam, I think she is based in Brighton) and asked her to choose someone - maybe someone who would not have thought of doing this - and paint their face. This was at the Isle of Wight Bestival and when I saw her later she said this treat had gone to a man who had been thrilled at the idea that someone had done this for him. It was a very busy and happy place and I am sure that seeing a jolly painted face will have brought good cheer to others too.
I collected two cinema tickets and then pinned them in a fancy envelope on a college notice board and watched the pleasure they gave - not only to the young people who went ot the cinema but to the others who looked and smiled.
I took a day off work and entertained strangers (now friends!) to a picnic at my beach hut. These people were on a visit here from the US and said it was a highlight of their holiday, having never seen a beach hut before and just enjoying the wackiness of the day.
On my birthday I gave a present to a stranger (something I plan to do every year now!)
The last of my quests did not cost me anything in terms of money but did take time and thought. I was asked to come up with ideas for a work 'awayday' and gave myself time and energy to think creatively around this (rather than just jot down a few predictable activities), coming up with ideas which hopefully will bring surprise and discovery to others. A different kind of gift..
I enjoyed this a lot, learned from it, felt my creativity opening up and found it thought provoking. It was a real pleasure.
Dale

So what differences do you want to make? Let me know.

Keep the ideas coming

A quick summary of some areas that people are using £65 for:

• having a fun weekly adventure/quest
• surprising and helping people with random acts of kindness
• helping young people
• helping old people
• helping people develop their careers/start a business
• creating sustainable projects

Please let me know if you would like £65 to help someone else or make a difference in the lives of others.

Making A Difference - Sustainable Results

Yesterday I received a jar of Go MAD Honey produced by the 5000 bees bought with £65 (see post published 7th May) by Everard Brewery employees. The goal of producing and selling 100 jars of honey has been achieved and each year a local hospice will benefit by £200 through the sale of honey.

This is a great example of having fun, involving others and making a sustainable difference - apparently the bees reproduced to nearly 50,000!

Who could you involve?

Please contact me

As well as inviting people to contact me who would like £65 to spend, I also need to encourage you to return to this blog and read the comments posted in response to your requests - especially if I request you to send your full name & address. So Claire, who wanted to involve her Ranger Girl Guide Pack in making a difference, please contact me - or else I cannot send you a cheque.

Remember, to mention this blog to your friends, colleagues, family or any person you feel might get a buzz out of making a difference for someone else and hopefully they might get in touch.

Keep thinking possibilities.

Help required to give away money

To date, nearly 6 months after the Pokerface final, I have given away £12,960 (20%) of my prize winnings - which means that at this rate it will take me another 2 years to give the rest away! Not that I am complaining because I am having a really great time and an amazing amount of fun doing what I am doing. Deliberately, I have not set myself a goal to give the money away by a specific date as I am enjoying this new giveaway "hobby".

So far, there have been 122 comments - most of them requests - posted on this blog in response to my weekly postings. Please keep sending your requests, ideas or just thoughts and enjoy reading other people's comments. Also, why not tell a friend or a colleague about this blog and encourage them to make a difference with £65?


As a quick 5 minute exercise, grab a pen and some paper and write the question, "How could I/we possibly use £65 to make a difference and help others? Then write 20 answers to this question. I guarantee that if you do this you will have some good (and maybe some wacky) ideas. Then eliminate any relating to supporting existing charity/fundraising events and highlight your priorities. Then let me know!

Using your brain to help others

I usually spend Saturday morning having a relaxing catch up with emails, bits of paper, updating this blog in the peace and quiet of my office. The only person likely to disturb me is Ann, my office cleaner who sometimes likes to have a chat.

Last weekend she was sharing a few hindering thoughts about getting older and needing to stimulate her mind more. As she knew I had co-written a book about the brain, she was asking me some questions and the conversation turned to computer games that would stimulate her thinking.

So this week she is in for a surprise £65 to go shopping to buy herself a brain training game.

Who do you know that worries that they might be losing their marbles a bit? How could you use £65 to stimulate their thinking?