A recent article in the Guardian discussed how trend firm TrendWatching.com had reported on the growing trend for businesses to cash in on random acts of kindness (RAK).
What Behrman was talking about in the article were some companies that had researched customers’ behaviours and then matched “random” good deeds to the perceived needs of their customers.
I would argue quite strongly that these instances were not RAK. They could more accurately be described as contrived acts of kindness which were part of a well thought out word of mouth marketing strategy, which I find faintly disturbing.
Whilst I truly believe that one good turn deserves another and that what goes around comes around, I find it hard to believe that contrived acts of kindness designed to gain business profit will do anyone any good in the long run.
Genuine acts of kindness reward the giver with a feeling of satisfaction from within and do not involve checking the bank balance and clocking up success on flow charts. Kindness should not be treated as a business commodity.
One of the greatest acts of kindness that anyone can give is to help someone when they are in trouble. Having a skill set to enable you to help someone in a medical emergency is surely the greatest service that we can offer our fellow human beings.
Not only can you help others but you can also help yourself. I was instrumental in saving my own life when I had a serious accident. The people who kindly stopped to help me had no first aid knowledge – but they listened to what I had to say and helped me and got me to a hospital.
I have been fortunate enough to help many people along the way with my first aid skills, which has given me enormous amounts of personal happiness. Stopping to help others, keeping them safe until professional help arrives and then moving on with your own life – that is a real act of random kindness and I feel privileged to possess the skill set required that enables me to give help and assistance when it is needed.
Join me if you would like to learn more about how you can become a life saver and visit www.guardianfirstaid.co.uk. You never know when you will be needed.
