Wow,
what a great night!
Thanks again to everyone who helped make the inaugural “Topple Two Night” a
fantastic success. We couldn’t have done it without you and really appreciate
your generous investment of time, money and energy as a participant. The stories we collected ARE AMAZING (read below).
Domino Theory is all about inspiring people to set big things in motion and is
based on the idea that small actions can ultimately have a big impact. The
Toplers.com site is an early stage attempt at tracking those actions, sharing
the stories that result, and inspiring even more people to “act like a
Toppler.”
Based on the initial response that we’ve been able to track, you did a great
job of making all of that happen on Friday night!
People cried, people cheered, people were rendered speechless. Waiters and
waitresses got excited, kids of all ages helped out. Dominoes tipped here in
Boulder, dominoes tipped in Singapore. Fast food, fancy food, first dates,
birthdays – you covered it all.
Read all the great stories here: http://toplers.com/news
(we’ve also pasted in some of them below). Whether you participated or not, you can continue to the follow the news page to watch the dominos in motion. As you can see from the stories, there's something magical about both receiving AND giving an act of kindness.
For those of you who are interested in the numbers, they broke down like this:
60 Dominoes were mailed out
40 Dominoes were registered on Toplers.com (66.6%)
25 Dominoes were “tipped” on the 16th and recorded on Toplers.com (62.5%)
10 Dominoes were “claimed” and recorded on Toplers.com (so far... still getting a few more each day) (40%
!!!)
At least 1 domino was quickly tipped again (making it a 4th generation domino!) and has been already claimed by the
new owner on Toplers.com.
It’s been great to see such high levels of participation and we’re excited to
keep tracking the growth of the topple as the participants who didn’t get out
on Friday night tip their dominoes when they can, and as those second and third
generation topplers keep things moving.
A
number of people apologized for now being able to tip their domino on
Friday night for one reason or another. No worries! It will be fun to
watch your domino move when the time is right. Hopefully, based on the
overall success of this event you're now more inspired then ever.
And yes, there were a small handful of things didn't go as we had hoped. That's always the case when you set up dominoes. The fun part is learning how to set things up even more effectively in the future. I'll write about "lessons" at another time. I'm a pretty harsh critic and I can honestly say there were few "issues" outside of some basic website confusion.
So, pat yourself on the back and accept our most heartfelt thanks and
congratulations. If nothing else, you’ve inspired us to keep exploring the
possibility of setting even bigger things in motion and who knows how far these
topples can go and how much good they can do. We hope to inspire millions of
people along the way – you can proudly say that you were one of the first 100
people to get things started.
Thanks again and happy tipping,
-Herb & Adam
-=-=-
May 16 was the birthday of my step-dads mom, who passed away 9 years ago. My
mom and step-dad recently moved from Denver to Las Vegas for retirement, and
this was the first time they would be unable to go to the grave site. That day
my dad called me and asked me if I would put flowers on the grave after work. I
have never done this, so it was a challenge since I didn’t know exactly where
his parents were buried. Honestly, this had been quite a burden, since I work
in the Tech Center-and live in North West Denver, and the cemetery is in South
West Denver. It took me over an hour of rush hour traffic to get to the store,
nearly 20 minutes in the store to get the flowers and a can of beer, and it was
closing in on 6pm before I even got to the cemetery. To top it off, I couldn’t
find the site. I actually found a friend of mine, who died 10 years ago and I
put flowers on his grave. (I have only gone to his grave once….7 or 8 years
ago). Finally, after searching for what felt like an eternity I found the
grave! I placed the flowers for the birthday, and I poured a beer for
tradition. At that point, I was so happy I completed this task for my dad.
After this, I was so exhausted from work, traffic, and searching….all I wanted
to do is have a nice dinner with my boyfriend. We never go to this restaurant
anymore because their prices have jumped so much in the past year. We decided
to go anyway, and treat ourselves to one of our favorite places. Dinner was
amazing, and the food was delicious. At the end, our server brought us our
bill, and all it had in it was the domino and slip. “Someone has decided to
take care of your bill tonight, and they said to have a great weekend.” We
couldn’t believe it; we asked him if we were on some type of hidden-camera
show. When he replied to us that nothing was asked from us, and that someone
had honestly picked up our tab, we nearly fell out of our chairs. How could
someone do this? It puzzled our minds all weekend. We sat silent at the table,
walked out silent, and really had no conversation on the way home. We were both
so stunned at this act of kindness and generosity; we didn’t know what to say
or how to act. We both have never experienced this feeling before, but we loved
it. And we loved it so much we can not wait to share this with someone too. I
wish I could tell you how stressed I felt before dinner, and how grateful we
both felt after. We would love to thank the table who did this…but since we
can’t, we will say a prayer for you and return this generosity to someone new
to experience it. PS: We did have a great weekend, we even looked at diamond
rings.....Thank you so much!
-=-=-
Our family visited our local Red Robin restaurant and had a friend with us. We
were eating early since everyone had somewhere else to be, but we still like to
try to have a family meal. We ordered and received our food very quickly. We
enjoyed our meal together and the waitress (who had been very nice throughout
the meal) brought our "check" and announced that our meal had been
bought by someone else. She showed us the envelope with the explanation and the
domino. It was a really fun surprise! It is amazing how special a act of
kindness can make you feel. Our children really thought it was cool and it was
good for them to experience. Thanks to whoever made our night -- we will
definitely be passing it on!!
-=-=-
I was running errands after a long day at work. Tried to get my hair cut but
after waiting over 1/2 an hour (when they had told me it would just be "a
few minutes") I left and instead got the oil changed in my car. By then it
was after 7:00 and I was hungry, so I went to a nearby McDonald's for a
cheeseburger meal. When I ordered in the drive-thru the employee never told me
my amount due, and I remember thinking "maybe they have some special
going." Instead, when I drove around to pay my bill, the employee gestured
to the car in line in front of me and told me the "nice lady" in that
car had paid for my meal. The employee then handed me a domino and the form
explaining Toplers. I guessed it was a "pay it forward" type of deal.
The employee seemed both pleased and a little flustered by the whole process. I
am very excited about continuing this and I am trying to decide which
restaurant to pick.
-=-=-
Hi!
I live in Boulder and have enjoyed this practice for a few years now.
Every once in a while taking care of someone elses tab...it's quite
nice and makes me feel warm inside, just like the plate of mashed
potatoes I've just eaten. :)
I hope you, too, enjoy the practice of having fun and doing something
nice and unexpected for someone else. Regardless of the outcome, it's
nice to be a part of something, knowing we are all threaded together
anyway. Have fun and bee happy.
-=-=-
First time to the West End Tavern for Molly. Wonderful meal, good beer and fun
friends, great waitress. She recommended our table to the domino person. I
think she was having a rough night and we were easy going. She deserved the
free meal - don't worry we'll go back again and tip her well. We were
completely stumped by the domino but loved getting a free meal. It was a great
evening. Thank you much.
-=-=-
On the evening we obtained the domino, we decided to celebrate a Friday night
at our favorite Mexican restaurant. I am eight months pregnant with our first
baby and with her upcoming arrival, my husband and I are trying to enjoy our
last couple months as a twosome. Our server appeared to be dropping off the
check, but when we looked closer it was a domino and flyer stating that our
dinner was already paid for. To be expected, we were confused and skeptical at
first but after questioning our server he stated that another guest had paid
the bill on our behalf and but he couldn't provide any other information. This
was an incredibly nice gesture and we only wish we could have thanked the
people responsible. This will be a great story to tell our baby girl when she's
older to show her how people still do good things for each other. Again, thank
you and the impact of this experience will not be forgotten.
-=-=-
We just came home from Uncle Julio's in Chicago after enjoying a great
dinner with our little guy Nate. Our friend Adam got us interested in
participating in this and tonight was the first night. Not much of a
story here since we were the initiators of this topple. We found a nice
couple sitting within our view who seemed to be very much in love. We
thought it would be such a cool thing to do for a couple who seemed so
happy. Our waitress LOVED being involved and seemed quite intrigued
with the whole thing. She made the drop and kept the our identities
hidden. Anyway, we really hope they keep it going!
-=-=-
My wife and I were eating dinner at the Mountain Sun. We live in Fort Collins
and had come down to pick up some things from REI and decided to go have a beer
and some food in downtown Boulder. Towards the end of our meal, our server came
by and took the tab, I assumed that either he had forgotten to put something on
the tab or my wife had decided to pay the tab. After a few minutes I asked my
wife if she had paid for the tab and she said no, so I assumed that he was
adding up the bill and coming back with the total. When he came back he asked
if there would be anything else, and when we told him no, he informed us that
someone had picked up our tab and introduced us to the domino. He tried to give
us the rundown on how it worked but he wasn't entirely sure and recommended we
check out the website and decide for ourselves. Not quite sure what to make of
it, I hailed him back over to our table to have him explain it one more time,
and to find out if the tip had been included by our generous tab payer. We in
turn tipped our waiter and proceeded to leave in a somewhat confused manner, but
very interested in bringing this phenomenon to Fort Collins. So, to the
generous tab payer, thanks for the act of kindness and know that it will be
continued.
-=-=-
We are a family of seven, so we were pleasantly surprised when someone offered
to pay for our meal at Ruby Tuesdays..we even had two guests with us. What an
amazing thing!
-=-=-
It's not about charity. It's about interacting with other people who live
amongst us, just for fun. To elevate our community by surprising each other
with something nice. Honestly, I had a blast - with seven other people, hitting
the restaurants of Boulder, CO. What a great reason to hang out with friends.
It was a delightful evening and i highly recommend it to anyone. It's so not
about the money. order a domino! pass it on.
-=-=-
I work as a barista at Pronto Espresso Bar in Singapore.
Yesterday, an American lady came to our bar to buy a coffee and left us with a
domino and some money to buy the next person a drink. She seemed really excited
by the project and frankly, got me excited. I'd like to know how to get
involved in Toplers to get this movement going big :)
