A very good friend introduced me to a commencement speech delivered at The Harker School, California. Nipun Mehta was the keynote speaker and he spoke so passionately about a very basic human value – Generosity. 

I followed up on this video by Nipun Mehta’s Ted Talk at Berkeley. The idea he spoke about was so simple. The thought so noble. The delivery so natural.

The opportunist that I am, I wrote to Nipun Mehta inviting him to speak to my team at Gozoop and inspire them with his stories. I was honestly not expecting a reply. But as it occurs many times when the intention is genuine, I did a get a reply. Coincidentally, he was visiting Mumbai for 2 days from California and he was more than happy to be a source of inspiration for 80-85 young people. I was thrilled.

The talk was as inspiring as one would expect. The session ended with lot of bear hugs between Nipun and Gozoopers. Everyone was on a high.

What was now important was to sustain the high. How could we channelize the energy to make a meaningful difference in our lives and those of others?

A group of 20 or so Gozoopers met post the talk and we bounced off different ideas. Someone came up with the idea of how we could use our expertise in Social Media (being a Digital Marketing agency) to spread good and this was the genesis of #1SmallStep – Social Media For Social Good. 

At an individual level, the #1SmallStep cards promotes random acts of kindness based on the “Pay it Forward model”. We have everyone – Gozoopers, our clients, all candidates who comes for interviews, colleges in which we execute Entrepreneurship & Digital marketing workshops, friends, random people – performing random acts of kindness to unexpected colleagues as well as strangers. You can view some random acts here.

What was interesting is that we also have our clients adopting #1SmallStep as part of their Social Media Strategies. We recently had Mad Over Donuts spread the goodness of their Donuts amongst the children of SSRVM Dharavi school.

We have witnessed day in day out how the smallest and simplest gestures (a book, a chocolate or even a Thank you note) goes such a long way when people aren’t expecting it. Better even when it is done anonymously. 

I would love your help in spreading these smiles. To all you entrepreneurs, business leaders, HR execs, employees who would like to build a great workplace culture or simply bring a smile to someones face, I am more than happy to send a bunch of #1SS cards your way. You can put in a request on the 1SmallStep Facebook page. I promise you will see a positive change in your team almost immediately. 

As human beings, we all want to do good for others but many times something stops us. I love these words by Oscar Wilde – “The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”

Maybe a #1SmallStep cards be that push for you and yours.