I Just Saw An Accident This Morning.

I commute every day on I-95, the most travelled highway in Connecticut. I was in the middle lane, trundling along at 60-65 mph, and the traffic ahead reduced their speed due to congestion (right around Westport). I hit my brakes and slowed my car down to a crawl. In my peripheral vision, I could see the other cars to my left (in the passing lane) do the same thing. Suddenly, an executive (he was wearing a suit) in a black Mercedes sedan moving 25-30 mph slams into the first of the cars on my left and begins a domino effect with four other cars.

It was like watching a movie.

No one was hurt — just shaken up. But it occurred to me that the Mercedes never hit their brakes — so they didn't see or anticipate hitting the car in front of them. The real question is: What were they doing instead of driving?

Texting? Changing the radio station? Talking on their phone? Reading the newspaper (I've seen this before)? Worrying about work? Worrying about his family? Marriage? He certainly was not concentrating on his driving. And that ruined at least five people's Tuesday.

We tend to get distracted often — based on inconsequential things. Nothing was more important at that moment than that driver operating his car. NOTHING.

How many times do you get distracted by the inconsequential? Pay attention — you'll go places. And not to the body shop.

Gratitude Should Be YOUR Attitude.

Most executives believe that their hard work — and only their hard work — got them to the position that they now sit. All the hours, all the meetings, the handshaking, the brainstorming, the late-night dinners brought them to the exact spot that they are in at this moment. Sorry to burst your bubble. But there's more.

Your colleagues. Many people that have worked under you, the peers beside you, and yes, the many bosses above you that helped you get to the spot you're presently in.

Time to begin thanking them. Take the next 30 days and each day, reach out to one of them with a 5 minute phone call and let them know how important they are to you. That's leadership.

5 minutes - it will make someone's day.

The Marketplace Is Changing - Are You Ready?

Over the past 3-4 years I've been watching massive changes take place in the marketplace. Some people see them, some people don't. Unfortunately, many people still act as if these institutions will go on forever. They actually disagree with me (even though they admit that the institutions are in severe decline) and come up with fanciful scenarios that somehow resurrect their position. So without further ado, here are my predictions that will change YOUR LIFE. (this is a long one - be patient!)

Music Stores

Let's start out with an easy one first. Ever since the first iPod, the writing has been on the wall with these stores. They originally handled the move from records to CD's back in the 80's easily, but now with the advent of much cheaper and faster access to music, their time is running out. As each new generational year becomes avid music listeners and purchasers, they turn more to digital and less to more expensive, less selection, and location-based stores.

The last store I went to (Cutler's in New Haven - a wonderful example of a great music store) had cut their real estate and selection in half. In addition, they had increased their inventory of DVD movies, small gifts, and iPod merchandise.

Prediction: I give this industry five years or less.

Movie Purchases & Rentals

This includes location based stores like Blockbuster and mailed-based companies like Netflix. Let's be honest — Blockbuster is toast. They have been making missteps for years now. And Netflix has been jabbing a shiv in their side to do it. Compare outrageous late fees versus renting the movie for as long as you like? It's not even fair.

Now Netflix is harder. They have a great service, incredible selection, and a broad business model. Ultimately though, the idea of mailing and receiving DVD's will become cumbersome in the light of digital transfer over the web (like they have started to do already). It's just a matter of time when they mail less and less and less.

Finally — DVD sales — it's already started. I was in Walmart the other day and saw that they cut down their DVD sales area and increased their "digital appliances" area. Most of their DVD's are at $5, in alignment with Blockbuster who is selling 5 for $20. These are the death-throes for DVD's. I don't think Blu-Ray will make a huge dent either - people are staying on the sidelines for that one too (I am).

Prediction: 2 years (Blockbuster, rentals) and Netflix mail delivery (4 years). DVD's as a format should take no more than 5-7 years to disappear.

Newspapers & Magazines & Books

This is an easy one - they are dying as we speak. If you can't get a magazine subscription for less than $10, you haven't looked very far. Newspapers are so small — advertisers are running away in droves - classifieds are gone (that was 30-50% of their revenue). The whole idea of printing, distributing, and selling paper when I have an iPhone, iPad, and MacBook - it's crazy. It's yesterday's news (catch this great Daily Show spot) that is being quickly supplanted by digital and video counterparts.

Think of students carrying the iPad - not lugging around all those textbooks. Businesspeople on planes and trains. Vacationers by the pool (whoops - maybe they'll have a waterproof one!).

Kindle. Ubook. iPad. Books . . . buh-bye! Which leads us to Bookstores . . . buh-bye! Which leads us to Publishers . . . buh-bye!  What? Publishers too?

New paradigm - authors hire editors to edit their book. The better the editor, the more expensive the service. No publishers. By the way - the idea that publishers actually 'market' the book - don't make me laugh. They only marketed it in bookstores — and oh yes, they are going away. Authors can build a bully pulpit on social media. Just like Abbey Ryan has done for her paintings on eBay. Check her out.

Prediction: Newspapers - 3 years; Magazines - 5 years; Books & Publishers - 10-12 years

Video Games (sold in stores on disc)

Akin to CD's and DVD's - their time is also short. My family are already downloading games on our iPhones (Madden football) - hopefully the iPad will accelerate the whole process. They've always been overpriced - and companies like GameStop are marketplace rip-off artists who take advantage of kids and willing parents. Hope to see them go ASAP.

Prediction: 5 years

Libraries

This is a tough one to write — but I will anyway (I'm going to hell for this one).

Have you been to a library lately? I rest my case. All kidding aside — libraries are wonderful centers of knowledge — but isn't our home or office computer a center of knowledge too? How many times have you gone to the library to find a book and it's just not there? You can place a hold on it, the person doesn't bring it back for decades, and when it finally does come back and they alert you — and your interest has waned. Libraries have tried to keep up — they've added videos and music and events and cappuccino and still these institutions are desolate (okay - there are some that do pull in the kids - but then they've turned into child care centers). You'll only find the errant senior citizen, transient, or unemployed worker. That's it.

And they cost a pretty penny to build, renovate, staff and run. MILLIONS of dollars. Add that most towns have multiple libraries coupled with every school having a separate library too and you are talking serious adult dollars here.

What would happen if everyone had an iPad? And the town digitized all books for "rental"? You can watch movies and music and do research (most good research today is also digital). Maybe the town invested in free wi-fi broadband for the entire town?

Prediction: 10-15 years tops

I know some of these predictions and assumptions might be way off - and there will be stragglers - but it's fun to put it out there and start a dialogue. So please let me know how you feel!

Time For Wall Street CEOs To 'Earn Back' America's Trust.

Bailout watchdog and Middle Class advocate Elizabeth Warren has accused Wall Street CEOs of abusing consumer trust and challenged them to step up and support financial reform — for the nation's benefit as well as their own. In an opinion piece to be published in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Warren writes:

For years, Wall Street CEOs have thrown away customer trust like so much worthless trash.

Banks and brokers have sold deceptive mortgages for more than a decade. Financial wizards made billions by packaging and repackaging those loans into securities. And federal regulators played the role of lookout at a bank robbery, holding back anyone who tried to stop the massive looting from middle-class families. When they weren't selling deceptive mortgages, Wall Street invented new credit card tricks and clever overdraft fees.

The Harvard Law professor and TARP overseer added that the bankers "squandered what little trust was left" when they took taxpayer bailouts.

The piece, titled "Wall Street's Race to the Bottom," explains how bankers can reclaim that trust. An important piece — read it.

The CEO Revolving Door Keeps Spinning . . .

From the "WOW - That didn't take long" department: "Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is taking over as chairman and CEO of CIT Group as the commercial lender continues to restructure its business following a brief stay in bankruptcy protection last year.

As chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, Thain came under fire for having paid out $3.6 billion in bonuses to Merrill employees just before a BOA deal closed, and for spending more than $1 million to redecorate his office at Merrill, despite its massive losses.

CIT Group Inc., one of the nation's largest lenders to small and mid-sized businesses, said Thain will take the helm immediately. The 54-year-old replaces acting interim CEO Peter J. Tobin, who will remain on CIT's board. Tobin had stepped in while CIT searched for a permanent replacement for Jeffrey Peek, who retired as chairman and CEO on Jan. 15. President and Chief Operating Officer Alexander T. Mason, 58, is leaving the company Feb. 26. Chief Financial Officer Joseph Leone has said he plans to retire in April."

Looks like the rats are jumping ship and one huge rat is coming aboard.

How do they do it? Would love your comments . . .

I Got Off My Ass . . . My First Podcast.

Enjoy!

$14.27 Can Change Your Career. Guaranteed.

Every so often, a person comes along, writes a book, and changes the way people act. Napoleon Hill did it with"Think and Grow Rich". Dale Carnegie — "How To Win Friends and Influence People". Peters and Waterman — "In Search of Excellence". Stephen Covey — "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". And Keith Ferrazzi — "Never Eat Alone".

Seth Godin has been writing books, speaking, and blogging for over 10 years. I first was introduced to him with his first book, "Permission Marketing". I then drifted off from Seth after reading a few of his other books but have been following him lately with his blog.

Michael Hyatt turned me onto his latest read, "Linchpin — Are You Indispensable?". I bought it yesterday on my Amazon Kindle and proceeded to stay up most of the night finishing it. This book is going to change the way people think, act, and work.

Everyone knows there is something wrong with business today. Seth crystalizes what the REAL problem is and delivers to the reader clear instructions on how to find their way on how to succeed in the new business world.

Bottom line: Seth espouses what I do every day with my clients.

A short summary from Amazon: "Linchpin is a most unusual, well-organized, concise book about what it takes to become indispensable in the workplace - whether you work for someone else (at any level) or are self-employed. It's about how business has rapidly changed and how treating employees like factory workers (or doing your job like one) doesn't work any longer. We must make choices and take action to "chart our own paths" and add value that others do not. We cannot wait for a boss or a job description to tell us what to do, rather we must just take the initiative ourselves. Only then can we become indispensable "linchpins," rather than replaceable "cogs." "You don't become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to become indispensable is to be different. That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people."

Stop what you're doing right now and go out and buy this book. It will change your life.

How To Be Successful Every Day.

  Time to hit work after a wonderful weekend . . . check your email . . . get ready for all those wonderful meetings . . . and make sure you schedule for all the work coming down the pike this week.

Whoops! Forgot to tell you something . . . Most executives tend to forget that their job isn't supposed to crank out work (okay - that's part of your job - but just follow my thinking for a bit).

You are also expected to IMPROVE. CONSTANTLY.

Of course you work. But to be successful in your position, you need to be a machine. A machine that constantly strives to:

1. Do better.
2. Take on additional responsibilities.
3. Never wear out (keep on running and have a bright smile every day).

But how do you do that? Your schedule is ALWAYS full. You come in early, you stay late, and you bring work home. How are you going to IMPROVE CONSTANTLY?

There are three little letters that will help you do that EVERY DAY:    S   D   R

S = STREAMLINE Regularly look at your workload and apply the 80/20 rule to it. Why? Candidly, if you work day-to-day, you tend to get into little ruts in your work habits, your responsibilities, and your inter-personal connections. Not major ruts - small ones. What eventually happens is that they take over your schedule, eking out more and more time, until you find yourself working 60-70 hours a week and 10-20 hours at home.

These ruts steal precious time from those high-value, high-impact tasks that move you forward quickly. So on a monthly basis, stand back and look at your litany of responsibilities, and make highly critical assessments of each one. See how you can eliminate steps in accomplishing each task. Instead of a report, will an email suffice? Instead of an email, would a quick 2 minute phone call be in line? Instead of a phone call, how about a personal drive-by their office? Cut your email in half by using some quick tips (call me - 203.500.2421).

When you regularly cut small steps out of your responsibilities and accelerate your interpersonal communications, they go faster and get done quicker.

D = DELEGATE Take a close look at your responsibilities and see what ones can be delegated to your staff. Or delegated to technology.

That is your job as a manager - to constantly motivate your team and get them to take on more complex and harder tasks. So give them a taste of what you do. Here's the hint - don't give them the fun stuff - give them the tasks that  you HATE to do. They will feel empowered that they are working on management-level responsibilities and you will have more time for more important things.

Or figure out how technology can come to the rescue. Review reports online rather than printing them out.

You'll find that your day gets more fun and you get to work on the stuff that really matters to your business and your success.

R = RETIRE Which tasks take up a lot of time but don't really deliver the impact that merits their priority?

Begin to prioritize all of your responsibilities and pick off one or two - stop doing them - see what happens. It might be a regular meeting that you have, a report that you do, a task that no one really appreciates. Try it - you might realize that no one notices that it's gone.

Candidly - this one is the hardest one to do - but when you get good at it - you'll find that this step delivers the biggest bang for your buck. Try it!

Sunday Funnies.

Woody Allen - The Moose (1965) I love this skit. It's one of my favorites. Business-wise, watch it and pay attention to Woody's timing. His rhythm and cadence is so spot on - the story is funny - but his delivery makes the skit.

Next time you do a presentation, pay attention to your rhythm and cadence - it is really important when making a point. As I always say - it's ALL Broadway! Enjoy.

What's The New Phrase For This Economy?

Do you know what my new phrase for this economy? Is it: "Beg For That Job"? No. "Ask Your Friends For Connections"? No.

It's a bit more simple than that. Simply put, it's:

"GET OFF YOUR ASS."

I know — a little blunt — a little in your face. But spot on.

In economic times like these we all have ample opportunities to grow. To take advantage of the upheaval in our marketplace. Up is Down. Down is Up.

I always say: "There are people who make things happen. There are people who watch what happened. And there are people who wonder WHAT HAPPENED!"

Which one will you be today? Take charge of your life:

• Take a risk at work. Ask to be on that new project. Present your new ideas to your boss.
• If you're unemployed, take a chance, call a CEO at a company that you really want to work for and set up a lunch with him.

Don't wait for a better time or when you will have more information. As I also say. "We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Don't wait for perfection - Do it now.

Bottom line — Step out of your comfort zone and MAKE IT HAPPEN.

Hiding Is Not Good For Your Career.

During times like these, most executives tend to worry if the axe will be falling near their neck. So what do they do? They power down, think small, take no risks and ensure that they don't appear in anyone's crosshairs.

Unfortunately, this not only does nothing (if they choose, they're going to fire you anyway), it can actually hurt your career.

Why might you be next to be laid off in this economy . . . let's look at the facts:

1. You make too much.
2. You make too little.
3. You're working on a low-level or non-strategic project.
4. You're working on a high-level, very strategic project.
5. You've worked much too long at that company.
6. You are the last one hired, first fired.
7. You're boss doesn't like your face.

What am I really saying here? Firing is capricious. It can happen for a number of reasons and most (if not all) of them have nothing to do with your performance. The reality is: 99 times out of 100, mass firings are due to bad planning by management, not by you. And they have to move fast, cut deep, and recover quickly to SAVE THEIR OWN NECKS. Or they will see the axe coming around the conference table for them.

SO . . . what am I REALLY saying here? In times like these, it is in your best interest to STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. Don't hide.

For example . . . Take a little risk:

1. Speak up at meetings. Let people know your point of view.
2. Have strategic lunches — meet with key executives inside and outside of your company.
3. Ask for more work — but choose carefully — get on that key project.
4. Make it a point of bumping into higher-ups and building relationships with them.

In times like these, companies have NO IDEA what to do. They're juggling all the balls in the air and NO ONE wants to catch one. They just keep juggling and praying they don't drop one.

Smart executives that are go-getters take advantage of this craziness and grab one of those balls. So . . . time to grab some balls.

Sunday Funnies.

America's "Can't-Do" List.

Lately, I've been studying the melting of glaciers in the greater Himalayas. Understanding the cascading effects of the slow-motion downsizing of one of the planet's most magnificent landforms has, to put it politely, left me dispirited. By Orville Schell at The Los Angeles Times.

It is impossible to focus on those Himalayan highlands without realizing that something that once seemed immutable and eternal has become vulnerable, even perishable. Those magnificent glaciers are wasting away on an overheated planet, and no one knows what to do about it.

Another tipping point has also been on my mind lately, and it's left me no less melancholy. In this case, the threat is to my own country, the United States. We Americans too seem to have passed a tipping point. Like the glaciers of the high Himalaya, long-familiar aspects of our nation are beginning to seem as if they are, in a sense, melting away.

In the last few months, as I've roamed the world from San Francisco to Copenhagen to Beijing to Dubai, I've taken to keeping a double- entry list of what works and what doesn't, country by country. Unfortunately, it's become largely a list of what works elsewhere but doesn't work here. In places such as China, South Korea, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland and (until recently) the United Arab Emirates, you find people hard at work on the challenges of education, transportation, energy and the environment. In these places, one feels the kind of hopefulness and can-do optimism that used to abound in the United States.

China, a country I've visited more than 100 times since 1975, elicits an especially complicated set of feelings in me. Its Leninist government doesn't always live up to Western ideals on such things as political transparency, the rule of law, human rights and democracy. And yet it has managed to conjure an economic miracle. In China today, you feel an unmistakable sense of energy and optimism in the air that, believe me, is bittersweet for an American pondering why the regenerative powers of his own country have gone missing.

As I've traveled from China's gleaming, efficient airports to our often-chaotic and broken-down versions of the same, or ridden on Europe's high-speed trains that so sharply contrast with our clunky, slowly vanishing passenger rail system, I keep expanding my list of what works here at home and what doesn't.

Over time, the list's entries have fallen into three categories. There are things that are robust and growing, replete with promise, the envy of the world. Then there are those things that are still alive and kicking but are precariously balanced between growth and decline. Finally, there are those things that are irredeemably broken.

Here is the score card as I see it:

Aspects of U.S. life that are still vigorous and filled with potential:

• , which is delivering much of the world's most innovative research and ideas.
• Silicon Valley, which has enormous inventiveness, energy and capital at its disposal.
• Civil society, which, despite the collapse of the economy, seems to be luring the best and brightest young people, and superbly performs the crucial function of goading government and other institutions.
• American philanthropy, which is the most evolved, well funded and innovative in the world.
• The U.S. military, the best-led, -trained and -equipped on the planet, despite being repeatedly thrust into hopeless wars by stupid politicians.
• The spirit and cohesiveness of small-town American life.
• The arts, including our film industry, which remains the globe's sole superpower of entertainment, along with the requisite networks of orchestras, ballet companies, theaters, pop music groups and world-class museums.

Aspects of U.S. life that still function but need help:

• Higher and secondary school education, in which America boasts some of the globe's preeminent institutions. Increasingly, though, many of the best institutions are private, and jewel-in-the-crown public systems such as California's continue to be hit with devastating budget cuts.
• Environmental protection, which compares favorably with that in other countries despite being underfunded.
• The national energy system, which still delivers but is overdependent on oil and coal, and depends on a grid badly in need of upgrading.

Aspects of U.S. life in need of drastic intervention:

• Public elementary education, which in most states is desperately underfunded and fails to deliver on its promise to provide all children with high-quality schooling.
• The federal government, which is essentially paralyzed by partisanship and incapable of delivering solutions to the country's most pressing problems.
• State governments, which are largely dysfunctional and nearly insolvent.
• American infrastructure, including highways, docks, bridges and tunnels, dikes, waterworks and other essential systems we aren't maintaining and upgrading as we should.
• Airlines and the airports they service, which are almost Third World in equipment and service standards.
• Passenger rail, which has not one mile of truly high-speed rail.
• The financial system, whose over-paid executives and underregulated practices ran us off an economic cliff in 2008 and compromised the whole system in the eyes of the world.
• The electronic media, which, except for public broadcasting and a vital and growing Internet, are an overly commercialized, broken-down mess that have let down the country in terms of keeping us informed.
• Print media, which from newspaper publishing to book publishing are in crisis.
• Basic manufacturing, which has fallen so far behind it seems headed for oblivion.

I started keeping these lists because I was searching for things that would banish that dispiriting sense that America is in decline. And yet the can-do list remains unbearably short and the can't-do one grows each time I travel.

American prowess and promise, once seemingly as much a permanent part of the global landscape as glaciers, mountains and oceans, seems to be melting away by the day, just like the great Himalayan ice fields.

Orville Schell is the director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations. He is the former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and the author of many books on China. A longer version of this article appears at tomdispatch.com.

Why I Love Twitter.

I've been using Twitter regularly now for exactly one year. And during that year, I have followed lots of friends and colleagues, and have made a lot of important business connections. Looking back, there is one constant that I can attribute to Twitter. It's one of the only avenues of information and connection that I utilize daily. I laugh, I learn, I follow very interesting tweets. I also have a lot of incredible people that I follow. Thank You for all your great tweets this year!

The constant: Twitter makes my life better. Not the NY Times, or the Wall Street Journal. Not the Huffington Post or Talking Points Memo. Twitter.

I find that the more that I surf news-oriented sites, the more I worry, the more I fret, the more depressed I get. I get the feeling that the job of media is to get us to worry, fret and lose hope. Why? So we come back for more.

I have a charge for you. For 30 days, I am asking myself and everyone out there to take a media fast. No more newspapers, News TV, news web sites . . . nothing. To fill that time - I'm just going to Tweet and read Tweets. How about you?

See what happens. Oh yes . . . and let me know.

Move Your Money.

Let's talk about the huge, growing chasm between the fortunes of Wall Street banks and Main Street banks. Let's start discussing what concrete steps individuals can take to help create a better financial system.

Let's get practical — and with some help from friends in the world of bank analysis, a video and website were produced devoted to a simple idea: Move Your Money.

Please watch and send to all your friends. Thank you.

2009 - The Best of Rich Gee.

It's almost 2010.

But there might be a lot of stuff that you missed in 2009.

So for everyone's benefit, I am presenting the Top 10 most clicked/read posts in an easy-to-scan format.

So here goes:

Breakthrough Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=2069

10 Ways To Grow Your Career In A Bad Economy — Part One Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=1870

10 Ways To Grow Your Career In A Bad Economy — Part Two Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=1877

Five Reasons Why Leaders Fail (& Why Failures Lead) Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=2030

3 Powerful Tips To Energize Your Team Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=1802

Ethical Leadership — You Need A Mentor Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=1439

How to Be an Effective CEO Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=1265

4 Ways To Coach Your Team Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=880

Great Leaders Empower Others Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=749

Get Ready For Annual Reviews! Click Here - https://richgee.com/?p=2005

Enjoy and have an UNBELIEVABLE 2010! - Rich

I Love Michael Hyatt.

Who is Michael Hyatt? Well, let me tell you about a man called Mike in Tennessee. I first 'met' Michael on Twitter. The topics he spoke about and the 'traveling' tweets that he posted immediately appealed to me. There was an innate energy about him and what he was accomplishing.

I then visited his site. Two words: "Blown Away". This man — who not only is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, is an accomplished speaker, leader, and social media guru. He's also a devoted family man — married for over 32 years and has five daughters and four grandchildren.

But what really attracted me to him is his focus on Leadership and Ethics. You see — Michael is rare in today's business world. He actually embraces a strict ethical and moral stance (in business and life) and strikes a decided separation from today's "laissez-faire" attitude of business leaders.

Since I also write about these topics — I was happy to stumble upon a fellow traveler.

So check him out — he just launched a new site — and I love his quote about it:

"My personal philosophy is that if you aren’t continually reinventing yourself, your company, and your brand, it’s only a matter of time before you become obsolete, irrelevant, or go out of business."

Someday, I would like to meet and speak to Michael. I think we have a lot in common.

Happy Holidays!

The Unexpected Power of $10 to $20.

Gary Ribble would not be able to read this story if not for people like you.

By Jim Kavanagh at CNN

Ribble, who has chronic lymphocytic leukemia in addition to severe diabetes and impaired hearing, needed new eyeglasses last spring but couldn't afford them after losing a job he'd held for more than 40 years.

Then he found out about the Modest Needs Foundation. The grass-roots charity pools thousands of small donations to help people get through short-term financial crises. Donors direct their dollars to the requests they want to fund.

"I need these glasses very badly or I will have to stop doing a lot of what I do: reading, writing, and working with my computer; I just can't see that well at all," Ribble wrote in his request.

Eleven visitors to modestneeds.org pitched in, and within a week Ribble, who lives in a trailer in Nappanee, Indiana, received a $364 check that changed his life.

"When I found my message from Modest Needs today that help was on the way, I cried a few tears of happiness knowing that I would be able to see again," he wrote in a thank you note.

Stories like that make Modest Needs Foundation founder and CEO Keith Taylor giddy.

"It is so much fun to read these testimonials," Taylor said. "It's like Christmas every day."

People often don't realize how powerful just 10 or 20 dollars can be, Taylor said. In many cases, a small amount can stop a crisis in its tracks.

"It's wonderful to see what this does for people," Taylor said. "You don't find out until after the fact what kind of an impact these little contributions that people are making; ... you have no idea what kind of a change you really are making in the person's life."

Cady Stanton, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, gave $20 to help fund Ribble's request.

"Glasses are such a small thing, right?" she said. "I mean, the man's worked 40-some years and he has cancer. The least he should be able to do is have some glasses. Our social contract with our country -- we should have glasses. I mean, come on. It's not that big of a deal."

Ribble wrote a beautiful thank you note that was passed along to the donors. Stanton keeps a copy of it on her desk.

"Your generosity overwhelms me and I just can't say in words how very happy I am and I thank God that someone cared enough for a disabled man, in a very hardship situation, to help me out to see better," the note read in part.

Taylor founded the site seven years ago out of a similar sense of gratitude.

One evening in 2002 he was marveling at how happy his life was, and remembered a few singular acts of kindness that had helped him get there.

For example, while in graduate school in Tennessee, he incurred a car repair bill that used up his rent money. His boss at his part-time job at a movie theater paid the rent for him -- not a loan, a gift.

As he reflected on his good fortune, Taylor pledged, "When I'm really rich I'm going to start an organization to help the working poor."

That's when his "aha!" moment came.

"It occurred to me all of a sudden that no one who had ever helped me had ever been wealthy, they had just been nice. They'd just had compassion," he said.

Taylor decided to set aside $350 to help one individual per month get through a crisis. He created a crude Web site inviting requests, expecting his effort to remain small, personal and obscure -- "on the millionth page of Google."

But this was the Internet. A well-meaning friend posted a link on the widely read blog Metafilter.com, and the next day Taylor was swamped with 1,100 e-mails. Many were asking for help, some were skeptical of Taylor's motives, and a surprising number of people wanted to contribute, he said.

At first he fended off would-be donors, because his vision for the project was limited, he said. But the e-mails and offers to donate kept coming, along with more requests for help. Taylor soon incorporated Modest Needs as a nonprofit organization.

Modest Needs' first grant saved a woman's life: It paid for a mammogram that found a tumor, Taylor said.

The organization has done nothing but grow ever since. By the end of December, Taylor expects to have made $2.4 million in grants in 2009.

"Every day is another miracle," Taylor said. "It's beyond my imagination."

Here's how it works: People e-mail their requests -- help with rent or a car repair or a medical bill, for example -- to Modest Needs, whose seven-person staff researches and verifies their legitimacy.

The vetted requests are then posted on ModestNeeds.org, where donors can choose which ones they want to help fund. Once the funding level is reached, a check is sent out.

Gift certificates are available. A donor can contribute any amount and then let the gift recipient decide where it should go.

"You're talking about huge, huge numbers of individual people giving just a little bit of what they have to make the lives of people who have short-term emergencies a little bit better by just keeping them on track, keeping them out of the social services system altogether," Taylor said.

Those individual contributions are multiplied by matching grants from larger donors, including musician and recording company executive Herb Alpert and his wife, Lani Hall Alpert.

"We really wanted to help him [Taylor] grow that community of small giving," said Rona Sebastian, president of the Herb Alpert Foundation.

The Alperts were also struck by how many Modest Needs grant recipients -- 68 percent, Taylor said -- turned around and became donors to the organization, Sebastian said.

"That was extremely exciting to us because that was something we found to be very powerful," she said.

Ribble is among those rebound donors: Despite his poverty, he donates $5 a month to help others through Modest Needs.

Editor's note: In the first six hours after this story was published on CNN.com, Modest Needs Foundation had set records by receiving $54,413 in individual donations and distributing $42,000 to fulfill 57 requests, CEO Keith Taylor told CNN. The donors "all came from CNN," he said. "Literally all of them." All the donations will be multiplied by matching gifts, he noted. "This is like the greatest day we've had in forever," Taylor said. "We are having so much fun. ... Everybody is just happy, happy, happy. ... If we can keep it going for just another four or five hours, we will have not just our biggest day in history but we'll have one that won't be beaten for a long time, and a lot of people will get the help they need."

Who is Ben Kennedy? He's not Ebenezer Scrooge.

Unless you live in Helena, Mont., you’re unlikely to have any notion of who Ben Kennedy was. And even if you live in Helena, you may have never knew his name. By Verlyn Klinkenborg at The New York Times.

You might have seen him on the street or in the alleys behind buildings downtown, collecting cans and flattening cardboard boxes for recycling. He probably would have caught your attention if you drifted downwind of him, for, in truth, his scent was high and overripe. His hair was wild, and his mouth had long been going bald of teeth.

Ben Kennedy was a native of Belt, Mont., a few miles east of Great Falls. You could be forgiven for thinking he was homeless, but he died in his subsidized housing in Helena on Dec. 2, just short of his 87th birthday.

On Dec. 16, the anniversary date of his birthday, there was a posthumous celebration of Ben Kennedy’s departed life at the Windbag Saloon. The party — crowded and filled with emotion, according to reports — wasn’t just to commemorate a perplexing local figure. It was to honor the passing of a benefactor.

Ben Kennedy lived on little more than his Social Security. Out of that pittance, he regularly scraped together enough to make sizable donations to a number of charities, including the Nature Conservancy and the Montana Land Reliance, a land trust. His gifts were usually made in cash, in person, after a considerable, and sometimes daunting, search of his pockets, and often in crisp hundred-dollar bills. The surprise, at the Windbag wake, was how many of these gifts he’d made — and how few recipients knew about his other contributions.

There’s surely a lot more to tell about Ben Kennedy, nearly all of it beyond telling now. He was a public figure but a private man, and he kept most of his autobiography quiet. It would be good to know what impelled him to make the gifts he made. But then, it would also be good to know just why his gifts surprise us, why his charity seems so exceptional. Perhaps he saw it as his responsibility, as the sign of a wealth he felt lucky to have — and a duty to share.