The Five-Minute Favor
By Bhavin Shah
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Silicon Valley entrepreneur and advisor Adam Rifkin. Adam is known as one of the most well-connected guys around (he’s been called Fortune’s Best Networker), and has mastered the art of paying it forward. Professor Adam Grant of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania wrote about his “Five-Minute Favor” philosophy in his book Give and Take. The premise is simple: It only takes five minutes to do something simple to help out a colleague or new acquaintance, and it pays off in myriad ways.
As Adam wrote with Kare Anderson in Forbes, it takes only five minutes to:
- Use a product and offer concise, vivid and helpful feedback.
2. Introduce two people with a well-written email, citing a mutual interest.
3. Read a summary and offer crisp and concrete feedback.
4. Serve as a relevant reference for a person, product, or service.
5. Share, comment or retweet something on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+ or other social places.
6. Write a short, specific and laudatory note to recognize or recommend someone on LinkedIn, Yelp, or other social place.
All easy tasks, but too many professionals don’t set aside time to do them. Consultant Tim Sanders makes it a habit to do about one favor per day. Adam usually ends his phone calls or conversations with, “What can I do to help you?”
The five-minute favor doesn’t just benefit the recipient, either. In this video Adam Grant talks about how doing favors like introducing people to one another creates a whole culture of paying it forward, benefiting everyone involved. There’s also a payoff to the “selfish giver” who builds good will and social capital over time.
The idea is catching on outside of Silicon Valley, inspiring students at Wharton to form the Wharton Undergraduate Giving Society. They’re even launching an app to facilitate giving non-tangible gifts like academic help and advice.
Do you have an example of a five-minute favor that you’ve done for someone in your network? In what ways have your contacts helped you create a culture of paying it forward in your circle? Follow @RefreshApp on Twitter and share your thoughts with us using the #fiveminutefavor hashtag.
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