The Ultimate Life Hack: The Favor.
By Luke Jenkins

It seems like no matter what I’m working on, I often find myself thinking “there must be a better way to do this”. We find these “better ways” through traditional trial and error methods and eventually we begin to figure out things that work well for us. One big thing we do daily is connect with people. In the age of Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, we do this on an exponential scale. We communicate and interact with people seemingly from the time our eyes open till they close at night. So why is it that with all this communication there are still articles about us actually becoming less connected to one another?

I think this happens for a variety of reasons. It’s hard to bridge the gap between online life and real life. Furthermore, connecting online doesn’t bring any real emotion to the table. You click the add friend button or send a request on LinkedIn because you think connecting with that individual might better your career path. We are connecting, but there isn’t any glue that bonds the two worlds together.

I feel like I have a solution. Granted, I might be biased because I am building a favor platform. I believe the solution lies with the age old practice of doing a favor for someone. The most beautiful thing about the internet is that it does allow us to communicate with anyone, nearly anywhere on earth. This opens up the opportunity to connect like never before. Now we just need to do it in a method that binds us together. The favor does this. Everyone out there needs help at multiple points in their life. By extending a hand to someone in that time of need, whether it is something large or something small, creates a bond between the two parties. It takes us from simply communicating with that person to relying on them, with the bonus of finding gratitude and accomplishment on both sides.

My own startup team has seen our strength grow through the power of a favor. My current CTO Wawan Setyawan joined our team and became an invaluable asset all on a relationship formed around favors. I was in need of help on our original beta site with a custom plug-in and Wawan extended his hand. Having helped me in such a crucial time we immediately related and got to talking more, before I knew it I had a new friend, a colleague, and was entrusting Wawan to build our new platform and the greatest part? He is doing an incredible job.

So in my humble opinion, how do you want to work better, live better, and connect with one another better? Find someone who needs a hand and extend yours. It won’t matter if it is in real life or through the internet account, help someone accomplish something meaningful to them and you will have forever created a valuable new connection.

Luke Jenkins is the founder of OweYaa an online marketplace and community where users leverage their skills and transact between one another by doing a favor.