When I did
this exercise, I decided to walk around on campus in order to find people to
approach. I decided to walk around in areas that I never usually go, so that I
would be less likely to bump into an acquaintance. I generally approached
younger college students that were probably freshmen or sophomores. I always
started off the conversation by saying, “Hello, how are you?” This was a great
way to get the attention of the person who I was trying to speak to. In order to get each person to take the dollar, I
generally just told each person that it was because I wanted him or her to have a
great day or week. I made sure to say that there was no catch or condition, and
that I genuinely just wanted them to be happy and take the dollar. I expected
to get at least three people to take the dollar, and I think it went pretty
well!
After going
around campus and actually handing out the dollars, I was surprised at how
easily people took the money! I thought that some people would be uncomfortable
and skeptical, but all of the people I went up to eventually smiled and
consented. Some people, like the girl in one of my examples, were hesitant in
the beginning, but ended up consenting and taking the dollar bill. It was
pretty fun to see people’s reactions to handing out the money, and I had more
fun with the exercise than I thought I would. I incorrectly predicted how many
dollar bills I would be able to give away because I ended up giving away all of
them. Also, I was wrong about how people would react to me coming up to them. I
genuinely thought that people would be uncomfortable or rude even. Every person
I went to ended up being happy and thankfully taking the dollar bill. I
definitely think that this was a fun experience.
Hey Wallace,
ReplyDeleteI walked around on campus as well and also approached younger students. The students who did accept the dollar took it very confused as if they thought i had other motives. I went with the "pay it forward" approach and told them that I was giving them a dollar just to be kind and in the hopes that they would do something kind for someone else also. I thought i would be able to give away all 5 dollars but when i interrupted people, some of them didn't want to be bothered and i was unsuccessful. Looks like you did a really good job with yours! Here is a link to my free money assignment - http://daniellesteinent3003.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-money.html
Wallace,
ReplyDeleteWhen I did this exercise I went to the mall and it was much harder to give away a dollar than it was for you. You made it look easy! For some reason people would either look at me weird or deny my offer. Maybe next time I should go to campus to do this. You did a good job!
Hello Wallace. I’m very surprised by the results of your exercise. I would think that only two people would take the random free dollar, but all five of the people you asked to it. In other blogs I looked at, they would get at most 1 person to take the dollar. I think the way you approached people was the perfect way to do it, be as polite and suspicious as possible.
ReplyDeleteGood evening Wallace. I'm surprised you didn't run into more hesitant participants like I've seen in other videos. Perhaps you have something called positive charisma and the people were naturally comfortable when you approached them. That will be a great asset for you in the future! Perhaps a career in sales is in your future, although then you'll have to talk them into giving you more dollars! I enjoyed reading this and watching your videos, good luck in the rest of the class.
ReplyDelete