Unexpected People


If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: It's always the unexpected who pleasantly surprise you.

I learned this way back at the USC School of Cinema-TV (before it was renamed to the very futuristic sounding "School of Cinematic Arts") when some of the people I knew/was friends with showed up to help me with my thesis...but it was the people who I never expected who showed up almost every day.

And now, it's happening again. I had sent out a call for $5 sponsorships after I got bamboozled into captaining the AIDS Walk LA Team for our four regional offices (I signed up to be part of the team...but since I was the only one that responded, the next thing you know...BAM! I'm the captain!). Since participation was abhorrently low (after all, we are talking rich Orange County folks here - the only charity they do is if a celebrity is involved, or if their bosses are part of the event), I figured I'd reach out to the people I know and see if they could each spare about $5. Most people don't mind giving $5, thanks to my company's matching gift program this turns into $10, and if you add it all up, it ends up being a nice little sum of money that goes to AIDS charities.

Surprisingly enough, the people that I expected to "sponsor" me did...but only some of them. And, again surprisingly, it was the people I never expected to respond either sponsored me, or gave much more than I had any right to expect.

At this point I really should be carefully about judging people too quickly. The ones you think very highly of end up disappointing you, and the ones that you either write off or don't think about at all are the ones that end up pleasantly surprising you.

On the other hand, I managed to compel six people from the four offices to actually walk with the team. That's six out of approximately 300...about 2%.


Links:
AWLA Team