Domino Theory Blog

Canoes, Kids, Smallmouth Bass, and Loons

On the heels of the huge success with Topple Two Night, I'm heading to Northern Michigan to one of my favorite places on Earth.  Domino Theory Blog will pick back up later next week.

Topple On...

Congratulations & Thank You Topplers!

Wow, what a great night!

Thanks again to everyone who helped make the inaugural “Topple Two Night” a fantastic success. We couldn’t have done it without you and really appreciate your generous investment of time, money and energy as a participant.  The stories we collected ARE AMAZING (read below).

Domino Theory is all about inspiring people to set big things in motion and is based on the idea that small actions can ultimately have a big impact. The Toplers.com site is an early stage attempt at tracking those actions, sharing the stories that result, and inspiring even more people to “act like a Toppler.”

Based on the initial response that we’ve been able to track, you did a great job of making all of that happen on Friday night!

People cried, people cheered, people were rendered speechless. Waiters and waitresses got excited, kids of all ages helped out. Dominoes tipped here in Boulder, dominoes tipped in Singapore. Fast food, fancy food, first dates, birthdays – you covered it all.

Read all the great stories here: http://toplers.com/news (we’ve also pasted in some of them below).  Whether you participated or not, you can continue to the follow the news page to watch the dominos in motion.  As you can see from the stories, there's something magical about both receiving AND giving an act of kindness.

For those of you who are interested in the numbers, they broke down like this:

60 Dominoes were mailed out
40 Dominoes were registered on Toplers.com (66.6%)
25 Dominoes were “tipped” on the 16th and recorded on Toplers.com (62.5%)
10 Dominoes were “claimed” and recorded on Toplers.com (so far...  still getting a few more each day) (40% !!!)
At least 1 domino was quickly tipped again (making it a 4th generation domino!) and has been already claimed by the new owner on Toplers.com.

It’s been great to see such high levels of participation and we’re excited to keep tracking the growth of the topple as the participants who didn’t get out on Friday night tip their dominoes when they can, and as those second and third generation topplers keep things moving.

A number of people apologized for now being able to tip their domino on Friday night for one reason or another.  No worries!  It will be fun to watch your domino move when the time is right.  Hopefully, based on the overall success of this event you're now more inspired then ever.

And yes, there were a small handful of things didn't go as we had hoped.  That's always the case when you set up dominoes.  The fun part is learning how to set things up even more effectively in the future.  I'll write about "lessons" at another time.  I'm a pretty harsh critic and I can honestly say there were few "issues" outside of some basic website confusion. 

So, pat yourself on the back and accept our most heartfelt thanks and congratulations. If nothing else, you’ve inspired us to keep exploring the possibility of setting even bigger things in motion and who knows how far these topples can go and how much good they can do. We hope to inspire millions of people along the way – you can proudly say that you were one of the first 100 people to get things started.

Thanks again and happy tipping,

-Herb & Adam

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May 16 was the birthday of my step-dads mom, who passed away 9 years ago. My mom and step-dad recently moved from Denver to Las Vegas for retirement, and this was the first time they would be unable to go to the grave site. That day my dad called me and asked me if I would put flowers on the grave after work. I have never done this, so it was a challenge since I didn’t know exactly where his parents were buried. Honestly, this had been quite a burden, since I work in the Tech Center-and live in North West Denver, and the cemetery is in South West Denver. It took me over an hour of rush hour traffic to get to the store, nearly 20 minutes in the store to get the flowers and a can of beer, and it was closing in on 6pm before I even got to the cemetery. To top it off, I couldn’t find the site. I actually found a friend of mine, who died 10 years ago and I put flowers on his grave. (I have only gone to his grave once….7 or 8 years ago). Finally, after searching for what felt like an eternity I found the grave! I placed the flowers for the birthday, and I poured a beer for tradition. At that point, I was so happy I completed this task for my dad. After this, I was so exhausted from work, traffic, and searching….all I wanted to do is have a nice dinner with my boyfriend. We never go to this restaurant anymore because their prices have jumped so much in the past year. We decided to go anyway, and treat ourselves to one of our favorite places. Dinner was amazing, and the food was delicious. At the end, our server brought us our bill, and all it had in it was the domino and slip. “Someone has decided to take care of your bill tonight, and they said to have a great weekend.” We couldn’t believe it; we asked him if we were on some type of hidden-camera show. When he replied to us that nothing was asked from us, and that someone had honestly picked up our tab, we nearly fell out of our chairs. How could someone do this? It puzzled our minds all weekend. We sat silent at the table, walked out silent, and really had no conversation on the way home. We were both so stunned at this act of kindness and generosity; we didn’t know what to say or how to act. We both have never experienced this feeling before, but we loved it. And we loved it so much we can not wait to share this with someone too. I wish I could tell you how stressed I felt before dinner, and how grateful we both felt after. We would love to thank the table who did this…but since we can’t, we will say a prayer for you and return this generosity to someone new to experience it. PS: We did have a great weekend, we even looked at diamond rings.....Thank you so much!

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Our family visited our local Red Robin restaurant and had a friend with us. We were eating early since everyone had somewhere else to be, but we still like to try to have a family meal. We ordered and received our food very quickly. We enjoyed our meal together and the waitress (who had been very nice throughout the meal) brought our "check" and announced that our meal had been bought by someone else. She showed us the envelope with the explanation and the domino. It was a really fun surprise! It is amazing how special a act of kindness can make you feel. Our children really thought it was cool and it was good for them to experience. Thanks to whoever made our night -- we will definitely be passing it on!!

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I was running errands after a long day at work. Tried to get my hair cut but after waiting over 1/2 an hour (when they had told me it would just be "a few minutes") I left and instead got the oil changed in my car. By then it was after 7:00 and I was hungry, so I went to a nearby McDonald's for a cheeseburger meal. When I ordered in the drive-thru the employee never told me my amount due, and I remember thinking "maybe they have some special going." Instead, when I drove around to pay my bill, the employee gestured to the car in line in front of me and told me the "nice lady" in that car had paid for my meal. The employee then handed me a domino and the form explaining Toplers. I guessed it was a "pay it forward" type of deal. The employee seemed both pleased and a little flustered by the whole process. I am very excited about continuing this and I am trying to decide which restaurant to pick.

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Hi! I live in Boulder and have enjoyed this practice for a few years now. Every once in a while taking care of someone elses tab...it's quite nice and makes me feel warm inside, just like the plate of mashed potatoes I've just eaten. :) I hope you, too, enjoy the practice of having fun and doing something nice and unexpected for someone else. Regardless of the outcome, it's nice to be a part of something, knowing we are all threaded together anyway. Have fun and bee happy.

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First time to the West End Tavern for Molly. Wonderful meal, good beer and fun friends, great waitress. She recommended our table to the domino person. I think she was having a rough night and we were easy going. She deserved the free meal - don't worry we'll go back again and tip her well. We were completely stumped by the domino but loved getting a free meal. It was a great evening. Thank you much.

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On the evening we obtained the domino, we decided to celebrate a Friday night at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I am eight months pregnant with our first baby and with her upcoming arrival, my husband and I are trying to enjoy our last couple months as a twosome. Our server appeared to be dropping off the check, but when we looked closer it was a domino and flyer stating that our dinner was already paid for. To be expected, we were confused and skeptical at first but after questioning our server he stated that another guest had paid the bill on our behalf and but he couldn't provide any other information. This was an incredibly nice gesture and we only wish we could have thanked the people responsible. This will be a great story to tell our baby girl when she's older to show her how people still do good things for each other. Again, thank you and the impact of this experience will not be forgotten.

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We just came home from Uncle Julio's in Chicago after enjoying a great dinner with our little guy Nate. Our friend Adam got us interested in participating in this and tonight was the first night. Not much of a story here since we were the initiators of this topple. We found a nice couple sitting within our view who seemed to be very much in love. We thought it would be such a cool thing to do for a couple who seemed so happy. Our waitress LOVED being involved and seemed quite intrigued with the whole thing. She made the drop and kept the our identities hidden. Anyway, we really hope they keep it going!

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My wife and I were eating dinner at the Mountain Sun. We live in Fort Collins and had come down to pick up some things from REI and decided to go have a beer and some food in downtown Boulder. Towards the end of our meal, our server came by and took the tab, I assumed that either he had forgotten to put something on the tab or my wife had decided to pay the tab. After a few minutes I asked my wife if she had paid for the tab and she said no, so I assumed that he was adding up the bill and coming back with the total. When he came back he asked if there would be anything else, and when we told him no, he informed us that someone had picked up our tab and introduced us to the domino. He tried to give us the rundown on how it worked but he wasn't entirely sure and recommended we check out the website and decide for ourselves. Not quite sure what to make of it, I hailed him back over to our table to have him explain it one more time, and to find out if the tip had been included by our generous tab payer. We in turn tipped our waiter and proceeded to leave in a somewhat confused manner, but very interested in bringing this phenomenon to Fort Collins. So, to the generous tab payer, thanks for the act of kindness and know that it will be continued.

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We are a family of seven, so we were pleasantly surprised when someone offered to pay for our meal at Ruby Tuesdays..we even had two guests with us. What an amazing thing!

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It's not about charity. It's about interacting with other people who live amongst us, just for fun. To elevate our community by surprising each other with something nice. Honestly, I had a blast - with seven other people, hitting the restaurants of Boulder, CO. What a great reason to hang out with friends. It was a delightful evening and i highly recommend it to anyone. It's so not about the money. order a domino! pass it on.

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I work as a barista at Pronto Espresso Bar in Singapore. Yesterday, an American lady came to our bar to buy a coffee and left us with a domino and some money to buy the next person a drink. She seemed really excited by the project and frankly, got me excited. I'd like to know how to get involved in Toplers to get this movement going big :)

Inspiration for Acquiring Expert Status

When I first started thinking about Domino Theory several years ago, it was at a time when I felt I couldn't make a big impact without "trading it all in."  I know others have shared similar thoughts to mine like, "I would love to do something HUGE but I guess it's not in the cards." 

Another similar "gee wouldn't it be nice" that I hear a lot involves being a true expert at something.  Imagine watching a world class athlete, musician, artists, scientist, whatever...  "If just once in my life I could be that good at something."

So, for this round of inspiration, here's an interesting article I was sent regarding becoming an expert.  It might be too late to be an expert pole vaulter, but not for many other things.  For me, I want to be an expert Toppler :-)

Enjoy...

Mastering Complex Human Endeavors

The modern study of expert performance is said to have begun in 1973, when American Scientist published an influential article by researchers Herbert Simon and William Chase. The research reported that chess enthusiasts had to play for at least 10 years before they could win international tournaments. While 10 years is a necessary minimum to achieve expertise in most fields, it does not guarantee success. Anders Ericsson writes in the introduction to the 901 page Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (2006), “The number of years of experience in a domain is a poor indicator of attained performance.” Ericsson is a professor at Florida State and runs the school’s Human Performance Laboratory.

Ericsson, who is an expert on expert performance, found that rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion – repeatedly practicing the most difficult physical tasks for an athlete, repeatedly performing new and highly intricate computations for a mathematician – that leads to first rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving. Ericsson calls this exertion “deliberate practice,” by which he means the kind of practice we hate, the kind that leads to failure and hair-pulling and fist-pounding. You like the Tuesday New York Times crossword? You have to tackle the Saturday one to be really good.

Take figure skating. For the 2003 book Expert Performance in Sports, researchers Janice Deakin and Stephen Cobley observed 24 skaters as they trained. The elite skaters spent 68% of their time practicing jumps – the most difficult components of their repertoire. Skaters in the second tier spent only 48% of their time on jumps. And, all skaters spent more time practicing jumps that already existed in their routines and less time on jumps they were attempting to learn. In other words, we like to practice what we already know rather than stretching our skills. Those who overcome that tendency are the real high performers.

Information excerpted from an article, “The Science of Experience”, John Cloud, Time Magazine, March 10, 2008

Last Post Before Topple Two Night

I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens tomorrow night.  Here are some last minute thoughts:

Almost everyone feels somewhat uncomfortable about doing this.  Don't let that stop you.  Follow this link for some ideas what I've done in the past to make it fun/easy/etc. There's really a lot of joy that comes from doing it once you get over the uncomfortableness of it.

For those who "twitter" I will send updates as things happen over the next few days.  I'm 'yoherb' on twitter.  For the rest of you normal people who either think twitter is weird or have no idea what I'm even talking about, I would encourage you to keep an eye on the News page at Toplers.com.

If you haven't already registered your domino, YOU HAVE TO DO THAT.  We are trying to build a journal of where the domino has been, as well as the story involved with it (you write a brief message when you register the domino).  DO IT NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T.

We expect that "something will come up" for a few of you.  Don't worry, we won't be disappointed if you don't pass the domino tomorrow night. Don't spend anytime feeling guilty, just pick a new time to get out (hopefully in the next few days) and make it happen.

Any and all feedback would be helpful.  Emails, post to the blogs, etc.  The more you tell us about your experiences, the more Domino Theory will mature into an even more powerful framework.  Also, you're stories inspire others.  Stories, stories, stories....  Keep them coming.

Since some of the participants don't read this blog there will probably also be an email sent.  So if you get hit twice with last minute info.

If you haven't checked out the Google Map lately, you should.  There are approximately 55 people all around the country doing this.  Possible a few people in other countries.  Not bad for a some very basic email/blog marketing.  This is definitely enough people to result in one or two chains continuing on.

As you know, I'm donating $10 to ONE.org for each domino registered after it's passed on.  If you feel so inspired to also donate, just visit ONE.org and find the donation page.  If you do this, it would be great to know so we can total up our impact. 

Remember, this can be really fun for the kids.  It's a great lesson for them, and it's fun to have them try to pick the recipient without "getting caught."  Little kids might get you busted, but a bit older ones should be fine (mine are 8 and 11).

There are approximately 25 people signed up in Boulder.  Wouldn't it be cool if two groups passed each other dominos!

Lastly, thanks to my wife Terry (who's done a number of things behind the scenes), friend Adam (who partnered with me on the Topple Two Night project from day one),  daughter Patricia (she stuffed envelopes and made mailing lables), son John (he helped shop and stuff envelopes), and everyone who hit their networks to recruit people.

Here's to good toppling tomorrow night!

What's the Buzz - Tell Me What's Happening

Did you ever see Jesus Christ Superstar?  My sister was in a summer production of it when I was growing up.  I can still remember it well.  There was a scene at the end with lots of smoke and stuff, much like the picture I've added for today's post.  In case you didn't know, the title of this post are the lyrics from one of my favorite songs in the show.

And that has to do with Domino Theory how?

Well, I made some changes to the toplers.com website last weekend, and the News section is now much cooler.  You should definitely check it out.  You can see all the stories that people are writing as they register their dominoes.  Here's my favorite so far.  It comes from "Chelsea."  I have no idea who she is or how she found out about Toppler Two Night.  That's part of what makes this so cool.

My boyfriend forwarded the idea of the domino theory on to me and we both really liked the concept of paying-it-forward and doing something selfless for a complete stranger. The idea of sacrifice is actually something we've recently been talking about proactively doing more of. So I ordered a domino for us to pass along. Turns out, he ordered one too!! So now we have two dominoes we get to use on May 16 - we'll be in Washington DC, so they'll already have travelled across the states on their first topple.

Check out all the news stories coming by visiting this link.   Things are picking up.   Fun fun.

Shouldn't I Buy Dinner for Someone That Really Needs It?

The title of this post is one of the common criticisms I hear about Topple #0000002.

Here's my view on that:

Imagine there's a man sitting at a restaurant by himself  He's wearing a suit and a nice watch.  He is reading over some papers and clearly deep in thought.  His bill is anonymously picked up by someone and a domino is passed.  What the Toppler didn't know was that this man was a world renowned doctor and had gone to dinner to make his final decision about donating half his wealth to a charity that helps families deal with Alzheimer's.  He had been leaning away from making the donation because he's not sure the donation will make a measurable impact on the magnitude of the problem.  As deeply religious person, he interprets the act of having his dinner purchased as "a sign."  He looks around, brings on a big smile, grabs a pen out of his suit jacket, and signs a piece of paper committing his money.  He goes home, registers his domino on the website, and shares his story.  His story inspires others.  And, he passes the domino one to someone else.  And so on...

With Topple Two Night coming up, who knows maybe we will hear of a story like this.

Maybe you're still skeptical?  Here's one that I know really happened, because it happened to me.

Nearly 20 years ago someone buys dinner for two friends of ours.  Those friends decide to pay it forward, and pick up the tab that night for the four of us.  We decide to pay it forward and buy someone dinner on our first anniversary.  We find it so fun, we do it each of the next 13 years.  Then this year, we start the Domino Theory experiment.  We buy dinner for Claire, and make a big impression on her (in her own words).  Next, we mobilize more than 50 people around the U.S. to do the same thing.  As this happens, money is donated to ONE.org to fight poverty.  All of this provides energy for me to consider starting a business to do even more things like this. And, based on the stories I hear all the time, because of Domino Theory people are donating money, helping others, etc., because they are now inspired when in the past they weren't.

So, when nearly 20 years ago our friends had their check pickup anonymously, would anyone ever imagine all this would come from that?

The real point here is that one of the core concepts of Domino Theory is that it is important to always remember that many dominos can fall after the first one.  Sometimes you can track this (that's the point of the #'s on the dominos).  Other times, you just tip.  Topple #0000002 is the kind of topple where you tap into the basic good nature of people with the hopes that something impactful will come from it.

Inspiration For Tackling Tough Problems

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the importance of inspiration when it comes to tackling tough problems.  The idea would be that I would write an inspirational message to myself, and the then share it with others.

Here's one I've been thinking about lately as I struggle with doing "the little stuff" and wondering if it will ever amount to anything:

Herb, think of yourself as a Domino in a chain of ever increasingly large dominos.  Each Domino has more mass then the previous.  Which Domino are you?  What increases your mass?  As you get more massive, what will you knock over that today you can't?

Video of the Week

I chuckled all the way through this one.  It's a grocery store.  The topple is made up of various groceries, crates, etc.  They tip at different speeds, success rates, and sounds (I always love the sounds).

But the funniest part is thinking how long this took to set up!  It was obviously done while the store was closed.  I wonder if they were punched in at the time.  Our topple at the Domino Awards took a handful of people about 3 hrs. to setup, and 30 seconds to knock down.  Let's just say 1 man hour per 10 seconds for now.  The video is 6 minutes long.  So...  About 36 man hours. 

I always have new thoughts about Domino Theory when I watch these crazy videos.  I'm interested in hearing your thoughts...

I created a new page on the blog for Videos of the Week.  So, check it out if you missed the others.

Come On You Don't Really Buy This Crap Do You?

I know you're out there.  You are saying to yourself:

"Gee, one things leads to another, that's interesting. Not." 

"Come on Herb, this is just mental masturbation.  Another way to spin an old concept."

"In case you missed it, people have realized for centuries that 'We're all Connected.'"

"I'm playing along Herb, but there's not much meat on the bun.  It's "neat" but please don't convince yourself that it's something more."

"Herb is full of shit and Domino Theory is a bunch of crap."  [That one is for the search engines.  I hope they pick that up.  I didn't use the f*ck word despite seeing how powerful that is for my friend Brad Feld's blog.]

"Sure, buying dinner for a stranger is nice thing to do, but do you really expect that to lead to some big "movement."  Get real."

"Great concept, I think, but you really haven't fully caught my attention yet.  Maybe that's because there's 'no there there'."

I'm sure I missed a few.  Let's hear it!  Quit being so damn nice.  I'm trying to do something good here, and I know for a fact that this means that many people would like nothing better than to poke at me.

My commenting software on the blog site is called "Intense Debate."  Let's give it a workout.

Kindness In the Heart of Darkness

If you followed the U.S. news at the end of last week, you know that there were some terrible storms across the country.  In one case, at least seven people, including three members of the same family, were killed.   

Then today, the full scope of the cyclone disaster in Myanmar came to light.  Tonight CNN reports the death toll will exceed 15,000.  It's easy to become desensitized to numbers.  In perspective, that's 3x the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.  All killed in basically 1 day.

But, as we've seen before, these tragedies have a way of bringing out the best in people.  And, behind their charity, there will be people who not only lend a helping hand, but do it in a way which "keeps the topple moving."  Call it pay-it-forward, domino theory, whatever.  It's when charitable work became even more impactful because someone understood that one small action can set something big in motion. 

I came across an article and short video that is a great example of this.  I would have embedded the video but I didn't like the license agreement.  So, visit the link, and take a moment to see how in the Heart of Darkness, Topplers are at work...