This assignment was one that I was for some reason most concerned about. Although you are simply giving away something however little, valuable, I thought it was going to be difficult to approach people since it wasn’t food or another freebie you were offering but money. It doesn’t often happen that someone comes up to offer you free money without asking anything in return like getting attention to something they would be promoting or whatever be the case. For that reason I felt like whatever reason I would find would sound rather untrue and that approaching someone with money would always end up in the assumption that you were suggestive of something in any way. So I thought long and hard on finding a good reason why I would offer someone a dollar bill. We obviously couldn’t reference the class as a reason, and few first ideas that came to mind were that I was feeling charitable for some reason. Then I thought of something that is actually true about me, I hate to carry cash around. So I decided to go out and try if that would be a reason good enough that people would believe and not run away from me. I managed to get to give away 3 and was rejected twice. The people who accepted it were simply buying my story and did not over think it, free dollar, why not, was their reaction. The people who ran away basically, they didn’t even want to hear me out because perhaps they were suspicious of my motives, but it may also be that they too focused going to their next destination and thought there was a catch to my offer, which they would want to avoid. We do often walk past people who we believe are just going to waste our time with something we are not interested in. After the interaction was over and they were already walking away I would ask for their attention once again (those on camera), so I could let them know it was for class if I had the permission to use footage. This way I wanted to avoid anyone feeling they were taken advantage of, if they happen to run into the video online.
No doubt you probably freaked some people out, but you have also broken some boundaries and gained a well social experience for improving your entrepreneurial skills. This takes bold initiative, plus, you probably made someone's day!
Wow, so nice of you to tell them after the fact that it was a class assignment and to ask their permission to use the footage. I was also rejected a couple times, where people basically ran away. I also had trouble coming up with a good reason to be giving people a dollar, because, as you said, people seldom give away money for no reason. I told them I was feeling charitable, and because it was a beautiful day. The people who took the money did seem to not overthink it, but I could tell the people who did not want it thought it was suspicious, or they thought too much about the offer. Interesting assignment we had to do, I wish I could have come up with a better excuse as to why I was giving away the money. Sounds like you did a great job, check out my blog. http://cassiespinner.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-money.html
Lirim, It took me a while as well to come up with an approach that I thought would be believable and acceptable to any passerby, and I ended up taking an approach similar to yours. For anyone my age, I simply told them I had found a dollar and that I do not like having cash on me and then offered them the dollar. I had more successes out of my 5 attempts than you did, but I also tried with young children, who accepted without a doubt and most of my failures were due to language barriers. Check out my blog: http://kmorton-entrepreneurship.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-money.html
Great job on the assignment Lirim!
ReplyDeleteNo doubt you probably freaked some people out, but you have also broken some boundaries and gained a well social experience for improving your entrepreneurial skills. This takes bold initiative, plus, you probably made someone's day!
Keep up the good work!
- Angela
Wow, so nice of you to tell them after the fact that it was a class assignment and to ask their permission to use the footage. I was also rejected a couple times, where people basically ran away. I also had trouble coming up with a good reason to be giving people a dollar, because, as you said, people seldom give away money for no reason. I told them I was feeling charitable, and because it was a beautiful day. The people who took the money did seem to not overthink it, but I could tell the people who did not want it thought it was suspicious, or they thought too much about the offer. Interesting assignment we had to do, I wish I could have come up with a better excuse as to why I was giving away the money. Sounds like you did a great job, check out my blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://cassiespinner.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-money.html
Lirim,
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while as well to come up with an approach that I thought would be believable and acceptable to any passerby, and I ended up taking an approach similar to yours. For anyone my age, I simply told them I had found a dollar and that I do not like having cash on me and then offered them the dollar. I had more successes out of my 5 attempts than you did, but I also tried with young children, who accepted without a doubt and most of my failures were due to language barriers. Check out my blog: http://kmorton-entrepreneurship.blogspot.com/2016/02/free-money.html