If Group Genie were a movie, the plot would go something like this: Anxiety mounts as humanity experiences increasing global problems and threats. From out of nowhere, a creativity team materializes. It’s called Group Genie, and the “genies” and their friends astonish the world by rolling out not one but seven major upgrades for humanity. Nothing like it had ever happened before in the history of the world. Group Genie’s Action Network helps by trying out the upgrades, and them by communicating them to the world. These upgrades transform humanity’s situation.
When people ask, “Where did Group Genie come from?” the answer is on this page. People like you went through these 30 steps. As mentioned in the video, please take this on as a “mission” that you will attempt to accomplish as soon as possible.
Step 1: If you didn’t watch the video, please either watch it or read the transcript.
[14 minute video link] The video has not been created yet. (This shorter video covers some of the same points.)
[14-minute video transcript] Please read this transcript until the video is ready.
Step 2: An Overview. The purposes and benefits of doing these steps.
We think that Tim Cimino did something unprecedented in human history. He thought of seven upgrades for humanity that have a huge potential to improve the world. This “TBI” process that you’ve begun is what can communicate these ideas to the whole world.
People who do all of these 30 steps will basically do four things: learn about the seven upgrades; give feedback on the ides; contribute a few dollars to help develop whichever of the upgrades they like; and then email some people they know to encourage them to learn about Group Genie.
If enough people do this, Group Genie will get the funds and volunteers it needs to develop the upgrades and communicate them to the world.
BENEFITS:
1. You’ll learn about a powerful new educational tool you can use to improve your life (superprograms.)
2. You’ll learn about several new ideas and methods that can positively improve your world. This should increase your optimism.
3. You’ll learn about the plan to launch seven huge ideas in 1-2 years. By doing these steps you actually move the plan forward. So if you complete these steps, you will have solid reasons for optimism for a better future for yourself and others—since you are making it happen.
It’s useful to think of this as an investment you’re making: The few hours and few dollars you give will be repaid back to you many times over in many forms: a more stable world politically; many new self-help tools and resources; local and international charities that have more funds and volunteers to do good; a clearer idea of how much action and what kind of action is enough to sustain and repair the world; higher self-esteem and greater fulfillment eventually through the ‘Wide Wealth’ upgrade; and a way for humanity to track its progress that motivates and inspires action.
Step 3: Understanding why we’d like you to do these steps as soon as possible
We don’t want you to rush through the steps, but we’d like you to complete them in seven days or less. If everyone does this, and if everyone sends their endorsement to most of their contacts, this message will go around the world in about three months, even if everyone doesn’t pass it on.
Expect the time you spend to be interesting. Also expect this to be like a huge bargain, a great deal! The deal is roughly this: You spend about three hours and donate a few dollars. — In exchange, Group Genie comes into existence (because it gets the funds, volunteers and staff it needs.) Then, over the next two years, Group Genie will launch at least seven upgrades, making the upgrades available worldwide, by publicizing the great benefits and by creating the materials that allow people to bring the upgrades into their lives. If you sign up for blog posts, you’ll periodically receive announcements when the upgrades are ready for use. You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped change the world.
By the way, 30 steps may seem far too many. But you have to remember that these 30 steps help launch seven high-leverage world-scale projects, not just one. They also create an organization that can continue to launch even more upgrades later on.
Step 4: This step is only for the people reading this during June or July of 2014. Tim Cimino needs to make sure that people will get through these steps without getting bogged down. (After two months all the glitches should be out of these steps.) So when you reach this step, email Tim at groupgenie@yahoo.com to let him know you’re at this step. He will then email you three days later, to ask where you’re at in the process. He’ll encourage you to keep moving forward, and be curious as to any obstacles you have. Because the upgrades can improve millions of people’s lives, it’s critical that this “To Build It” process work well.
Step 5: Get ready to learn about the upgrades
Starting with the next step, you’re going to be asked to read about each of the seven upgrades. Each begins with a summary, followed by a more detailed explanation, followed by an explanation of the benefits to humanity, and then some kind of status report or brief project description.
You probably won’t think all the upgrades are equally important. You might not even think a certain upgrade is a good idea. If not, you’ll be encouraged to give us the feedback.
Early readers of these steps will be able to contact Tim Cimino directly, while later readers will be sending their feedback to project leaders or to other volunteers. Your feedback will be valued. In fact, people’s reactions have already begun to improve the upgrades and the plans for developing and communicating the upgrades.
[By the way, even these steps may gradually change as we get feedback or think of better ways to do this. So don’t be surprised if this page changes slightly as you go through the steps!]
Step 6: Read about the superprograms upgrade, and then return here. (Click on the link in this step.)
Step 7: Create an email or document to give feedback. We suggest you put all your feedback into one document. For each upgrade, we’d like you to answer four questions:
A) What’s your impression of this upgrade on a scale of 1-9?
1= strongly dislike
3= dislike
5= neutral or mixed reaction
7= like
9= strongly like
B) What do you like/dislike about the upgrade most?
C) Assuming more details will be supplied when the upgrade is formally released, do you see any obstacles to you using the upgrade, or endorsing the upgrade to others?
D) Any questions you have, or confusion?
So in the document you’ve started, write the word ‘superprogram,’ and then write down your answers. Here’s an example of what someone might write:
Superprograms:
A. 8. (strongly like)
B. I most like that superprograms are very powerful, and can change my whole life. I like that you’ve already developed ready-to-use materials.
C. No. I can imagine using a superprogram.
D. Yes: Will superprograms use other already-established learning methods besides these?
So answer the four questions above, regarding superprograms.
Step 8: Read about the Helper’s Helper upgrade. (Click on the link in this step.)
Step 9: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding Helper’s Helper. Then read about the Golden Rule 2.0, and return here.
Step 10: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding the Golden Rule 2.0. Then read about Wide Wealth.
Step 11: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding Wide Wealth. Then read about Proof Through the Night if you live in a democracy. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
Step 12: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding Proof Through the Night. Then read about Supergoodness, and return here.
Step 13: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding Supergoodness. Then read about the Ai Sakai, and return here.
Step 14: Write down your answers to the four questions above (in Step 7), but regarding the Ai Sakai. Then read the following quick review about the world’s major upgrades for humanity:
Many people have liked Cimino’s upgrades, but many others didn’t fully recognize their world-changing potential. So here are some things to keep in mind when you think about these new upgrades:
a. The full potential of an upgrade is often not recognized at first. Often people have misgivings. For instance, 3000 years ago someone might have said that little round pieces of metal — in other words, coins — weren’t really worth much, practically speaking. Or they might have said that it was better to remember things than write them down. Or they might have said that hunting is better than farming because farming requires months before the food is ready, and only if the weather cooperates. Many of the great upgrades at first probably seemed like long shots.
b. Every major upgrade on Earth started as a brand new idea in the mind of one single person. In most cases we don’t know the name of the person.
c. These global upgrades don’t have to be complex or technical to be great. Certainly the Internet, the internal combustion engine and mass communications require much technical knowledge, but ideas such as written language, clock time, laws and money can be understood by seven-year-old children. (Many of Cimino’s upgrades will seem simple.)
d. Not everyone benefits from an upgrade. The Internet is an example, since many businesses were hurt or went under. Also, long ago, only an elite minority knew how to read. Most people were excluded. But over time, most people benefit tremendously from major upgrades.
e. Most upgrades change the power structure. Democracy, laws, written language, the Internet, and many others made different people into winners or losers. That’s why the upgrades were often resisted or downplayed at first. Many people in power didn’t want to lose power. (We’ll come back to this idea of resistance and how to overcome it.)
f. Upgrades can be misused. The Scientific Method is a prime example. It gave us medical science but also gave us weapons of mass destruction.
g. There’s usually a personal cost, but the benefits far outweigh the cost. Three examples: You have to learn to read—but then you can read anything. You have to obey the laws, but so does everyone else. You often have to pay for the internet connection or device—but then you have the whole world at your fingertips.
Step 15: Understanding what’s special about these seven upgrades
Some thoughtful readers might wonder if any other people have thought of huge world-changing upgrades.
Other readers might have had the thought, “Some of these ideas seem like self-help book concepts! And all self-help books present some kind of ‘upgrade’ for living. So what’s so special about these?”
Tim Cimino believes that a small number of people have the ability to invent major upgrades. But if most people try to think of ideas as big as these, it probably won’t be easy. These upgrades aren’t million-dollar inventions. They’re not even multi-billion-dollar ideas like Ebay, Paypal and Netflix. They are greater than that. Hopefully Cimino’s work will inspire others. He also hopes that as Group Genie launches these first seven upgrades, other super-creative people will join, and then we can use the Group Genie organization to launch other upgrades.
But these seven upgrades have some special qualities. First, although they can each stand alone, together they can be thought of as a global plan that works mostly from the individual level. Most global plans attempt to start on the international level. Almost all of them seem to do poorly for two reasons. First, they require the participation of about 200 nations and so they get bogged down in negotiations. Second, there is little buy-in from the general population because they are so technical and specialized. In contrast, almost all these upgrades work from the individual level. (The one exception is Helper’s Helper that works from the organizational level, but can be spread to charitable organizations by individuals.)
As part of a global plan, superprograms and Helper’s Helper give people increased capacity—potentially a great deal of capacity. And this capacity might be urgently needed by people to address problems they will be soon facing. The Golden Rule 2.0 gives people a better idea of how much action and what kinds of action are enough. Wide Wealth will give people more satisfaction and higher self-esteem in ways that are less materialistic and stressful to the environment. Proof Through the Night and similar programs in other democracies can help taxes to be saved or better spent, making the US and other democracies more efficient, and more “for the people.” Finally, the Ai Sakai is an upgrade having to do with humanity’s goal. All the other upgrades make the Ai Sakai more possible.
As far as being like other self-help books, superprograms belong to a very small class of methods that would be called “learning-how-to-learn” methods. There are a small number of books about learning how to learn. But most self-help books focus on one narrow subject or part of life.
Wide Wealth is the upgrade most like a self-help book. However, the change that Wide Wealth aims at could have far-reaching effects, since wealth, money and possessions play such a vast role in people’s lives and self-image. A world where most people really were aware of 40 kinds of wealth, rather than primarily just money and possessions, would feel like a different world altogether.
Another major difference between these upgrades and most self-help books is that there is much more driving force for many of these upgrades. For instance, the Ai Sakai is not just a slightly better goal and vision than world peace – it has seven huge advantages over world peace. That’s why adopting it would make such a big difference to humanity’s self-esteem and motivation to work toward a better world.
Also, while at first Proof Through the Night may seem like just another voter education program, it’s much more complete than most programs. If people can grasp how much an inefficient democracy will make them pay politically in aggravation, wasted tax money and despair, for instance, over the next ten years, then they’ll realize that there’s a huge driving force (how they could be living) for participation in the Proof Through the Night nonpartisan chain reaction. But it takes time for people to grasp the firepower and potential impact of Proof Through the Night.
Step 16: Deciding which upgrades you think are most important
Which upgrade(s) would you most like the world to have as soon as possible? We’d like you to rate or prioritize the upgrades. We think that this exercise will help you get a better sense of their potential impacts. So please put the seven upgrades in order from the one you think will have the greatest positive impact to the one you think will have the least impact.
Step 17: Commit to finishing these thirty steps. The more people who do do this and encourage a few others to do this, the more believable this becomes and the more others will do this. [A BIG TIP: If you think that you might not follow through on these 30 steps, ask whoever sent you this link to support you so that you complete these steps quickly! Email or call them now!]
Some people might be thinking, “Most people won’t do this because three hours is too long.” Or they might be thinking, “Most people won’t do this, so it won’t work; and so therefore it’s not worth doing.”
First, not everyone has to do these steps for Group Genie to get rolling. Second, the people who learn about Group Genie and its resources early on will have a personal advantage over others. Third, from one point of view, three hours may seem like a lot of time. But it’s hard to imagine an opportunity to improve the world like this ever happening again. As we said before, if you ever wanted something wonderfully good to happen to the world, this is your chance.
One more thing: We don’t expect most people who do these steps to be excited enough to volunteer significant time. But if people keep passing this forward, then it will reach the people who will get excited about one of the projects, and it will reach people who have expertise and who can give expert guidance. That’s why this pass-it-on process is very powerful. You only need to do your part, to do these steps once, and it will reach around the world. Later on, you can be proud that you helped build Group Genie.
Step 18: We’d like you to donate a few dollars to support the development of whichever upgrades you want the world to have.
We really mean “a few dollars.” Since we believe that these upgrades can offer huge world-changing benefits, we believe that enough people will endorse these upgrades and “pass it on.” So if this eventually reaches thousands of people, each person needs to give only a few dollars.
By the way, Cimino isn’t planning on getting funding, volunteers or PR any other way. One beautiful thing about this strategy is that it’s so fast. To get major foundation funding for seven projects would normally take seven to ten years, not three months. The second beautiful thing is that it frees Cimino to organize the upgrade teams. The third beautiful thing is that it gives people all around the world an active role in building Group Genie. By doing these “To Build It” steps you become one of the founders of Group Genie.
While you could write a check, the preferred method is to use our standard shopping cart system to accept donations. The shopping cart system will enable you to have your donation be used only for the upgrade(s) that you care about. The shopping cart system makes you think of each upgrade as a product you are buying in one-dollar units. For instance, if you wanted to donate $5 to superprogram development, $2 to Helper’s Helper development and $3 to promoting the Ai Sakai, you would be “purchasing” five one-dollar units of superprogram development, two one-dollar units of Helper’s Helper, and three one-dollar units of the Ai Sakai. An alternative is to just make a donation to Group Genie, and it will be used wherever we feel it can do the most good at the time the donation is received.
[Future Link to our shopping cart system]
Group Genie is not a tax-exempt organization, although we are working on it.
Step 19: About how the money will be spent
Much of the work we need to do will be done by volunteers who are excited about one or another of the projects. No one in history has attempted so many world-scale upgrades, so these volunteers will be part of an epic drama. But in some cases we will need to pay to have certain tasks done. Eventually we will need paid staff to manage and support the projects.
Some of these upgrades are so urgent and vital that Cimino plans to organize back-up projects teams, so that if one team gets bogged down, another can pick up and move forward.
By the way, if our funding runs far ahead of our needs, we will change these steps to ask people not to donate to certain projects, or to limit their donations, or not donate at all.
If you’re very excited about one of the upgrades, please consider volunteering. After completing these “To Build It” steps, check out our Volunteer page.
Step 20: Decide if you’d like to be in Group Genie’s FARN
The FARN is our “Fast Action Response Network.” Being in the FARN means people are on our email list and they receive requests to do very short projects.
These volunteers significantly help Group Genie by making brief efforts. Here are some imaginary examples:
• “We’d like people to give their reaction to a short video. (10 minutes)”
• “We need a videographer for a Proof Through the Night video.” (5 minutes to forward our request and give a brief explanation of PTTN.)
• “We’d like someone to proofread a new material or a new webpage. (10-20 minutes)”
• “We’d like someone to try out a new self-help material and give us feedback on it. (30-60 minutes).”
Our requests are almost always brief, no more than 50 words. Contact is made by email. You can elect to be on the general FARN or on one or more project FARNs. For instance, if you’re only interested in the Proof Through the Night Project, you can elect to only receive FARN requests on that project. But if you are willing to get more emails, you can join the general FARN. Of course, you can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time.
In the feedback document that you were creating for the upgrades, let us know which of the seven projects you’d like to receive FARN updates on.
[By the way, if you want to subscribe to blog posts from the Group Genie website, that’s a separate matter. Just go to the bottom right corner of the homepage and enter in your email address.]
Step 21: A quick intro to the rest of the GroupGenie.Org website
If you didn’t understand that Group Genie’s purpose is to create upgrades for humanity, you’d be confused by the wide assortment of materials on the website. The CLEAR Superprogram and the add-ons seem to be self-help materials. The Goodness pages seem to be about how to do more good. The “Superheroes” page is about global upgrades. And the “Insights and Stories” seem to be on a mixture of topics. Here and there you also find references to a global plan or global vision.
If you read enough of it, however, you’ll start to understand the connections between the different subjects. In general, Cimino was looking for high-leverage ways to improve people’s lives and to offset damaging trends.
Step 22: About forms of power and the phrase “the supremacy of method”
People are very aware of the various forms of power. There’s power in money and displaying wealth; power in reputation and fame; power in knowledge; and power in “who you know.” But people tend to underestimate the power of methods. Upgrades are significantly better methods.
Imagine that a certain surgeon is not very good, almost incompetent. Even if the surgeon’s practice has great PR and marketing; even if the surgeon has powerful friends and knows the right people; even if the surgeon is charismatic and physically attractive; even if the surgeon is bright and can speak well; even if the surgeon is kind and loving—none of this will ultimately matter. The surgeon will fail.
Now imagine the opposite situation. Imagine the surgeon does little marketing; doesn’t know all the right people; isn’t handsome or beautiful or well-spoken. But the surgeon has the best skills and uses the most successful methods. Word will get out that the surgeon has a high success rate, and that surgeon will have no lack of success. Everything ultimately depends on the surgeon’s methods.
The point of this is that ultimately what counts are the advantages that the upgrades give people. The visual impression that the website makes; the impression that Tim Cimino makes; the image that ‘Group Genie’ creates–all this is secondary. Yes, impressions are important, but we don’t want you to judge the upgrades based on subjective impressions. The seven upgrades may seem not to be as powerful as the more visible forms of power, but we believe that — like in the example of the surgeon above — skill or method is the bottom-line source of power. That’s what we mean by the words, “the supremacy of method.”
Step 23: Understanding “Not the Man, but the Methods”
You’ve probably seen video clips of famous people, people with charisma who seem ‘larger than life.’ People like Gandhi, Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Einstein come to mind. Tim Cimino considers himself to be low-key and not charismatic. He usually doesn’t strike people as being super-creative either. You may be interested to learn that when he was a research chemist and got his first idea—superprograms—he was already planning to leave chemistry to become a writer because his dream in life was to be a fiction writer. He said, “I just wanted to be a fiction writer, and not necessarily a great one because it’s enough to do what you love.”
But sometimes people get the wrong impression and think that Cimino is super-ambitious. They might think, ‘He don’t just want change the whole world; he wants to change it seven different ways!’ Or some people may think, ‘Here’s another nobody who thinks he has ideas that can change the whole world. Good luck!’
But Cimino doesn’t want people to focus on him. Rather it’s in the ideas, the upgrades themselves, the methods that are the real source of power. The power is also in people’s desire to have better lives, and their desire and need to overcome problems that are preventing them from living full lives and achieving some happiness.
Cimino believes that Group Genie will become an epic story, and a beloved organization because the potential of the upgrades is great, and because humanity’s needs are so great. All that’s needed is for people to pass this on, so that the people who want to be make these upgrades happen can find out about Group Genie and join.
So, one reason we say “not the man, but the methods” is that you will be disappointed if you expect Cimino to be the next Gandhi or Einstein, and you will be turned off and disgusted if you think Cimino wants to be the next Gandhi or Einstein.
Cimino doesn’t need to be a great leader. He only needs to do reasonable planning and oversight, and then find people with better leadership skills to lead the project teams.
The other reason we are saying “not the man, but the methods” is that, for reasons mentioned above, Cimino expects hyper-criticism and attacks, including personal attacks. Many people in power are not going to want Group Genie to succeed. But the decent people of the world far outnumber them, and currently the decent people still have more total power than the oppressors and the greedy.—But this might soon change if decent people don’t maintain and exercise their power. Anyway, the point is that ultimately the inventors of upgrades — and what they say or do — are not as important as the upgrades themselves.
Step 24: Looking ahead to the “Behold!” videos
When an upgrade is ready for formal release, we plan to put out what we call a “Behold!” video. The name comes from fairy tales about genies where the genies make something come into existence. A genie says, “Behold!” and something appears out of nowhere. In a similar way, Group Genie aims to make world-scale upgrades appear. In a sense, the upgrades already exist in idea form. Two of the upgrades have materials that can be used, but they are not yet refined and tested. So the big event will be when we formally release an upgrade to humanity, and when we have the network of people to spread the word.
At that point, we will notify those who subscribed to the website and those who joined our FARN network to encourage everyone to learn to use the upgrade, so that all will benefit.
Step 25: Understanding Group Genie’s “License to Fail”
Cimino was trained as a chemist. As a research chemist he performed hundreds of experiments. Scientists know that most experiments don’t give you the results you want, so you keep trying. In other words, most of the time you fail. Cimino expects to fail a great deal … until he succeeds. If he gets enough help, he will be able to perform many experiments in education, politics, nonprofit capacity-building and the other upgrade areas. Please give him and the Group Genie project teams the permission to fail until they succeed.
Also, please be patient with any rough edges on the website and our simple videos, until we can get the expertise to make things better.
You must always remember that it would be a lifetime achievement to introduce just one upgrade to humanity. To introduce seven is spectacular. Remember also that nothing like Group Genie has ever existed before. There are business incubators, and a few nonprofit incubators, but Group Genie is the world’s first nonprofit upgrade incubator accelerator. At the same time we are inventing upgrades, we are evolving a new organization structure.
Because the upgrades can do vast good, and because Group Genie is so unique, we expect that there will be a lot of attention focused on us. People may tend to have high expectations of Cimino and Group Genie because of the brilliant insights he got. That creates a lot of pressure. But you must remember that people like Edison performed hundreds of experiments that failed.
Step 26: Looking ahead and preparing for conflict, put-downs and attacks—and exploitation
At first you’d think that everyone would love any true upgrade since an upgrade is a better way to do something, usually involving a lot less effort and cost. Right? But upgrades usually face resistance and attacks. Cimino has experienced several kinds of resistance, put-downs and attacks. Here are some:
1. Some people attack or criticize his lack of formal training in some fields. Cimino’s upgrades are in areas such as education, politics and ethics. He is an ‘outsider’ in these fields. He believes that sometimes people are threatened by the power of the upgrades. Others might be envious or feel their status is threatened. So expect some experts to criticize the ideas. Some criticism is fine, since the ideas and methods can be helped by constructive criticism. Other critics will be disparaging and harsh.
2. Some powerful people and organizations will lose power if some of the upgrades are developed and released. Most of Cimino’s upgrades are designed to empower the great majority of people. Thus power elites would lose power. So expect put-downs and attacks, especially against Proof Through the Night, the political idea.
3. Cimino developed many self-help tools and he’s giving away some things that people try to sell. Other educational or political nonprofits may also feel threatened.
4. Some religious people who misunderstand his approach to goodness may feel threatened. Cimino has developed many materials and parables on the subject of goodness and how to do more good. He’s not competing with great religious teachers; he’s trying to minimize human suffering and premature death. So some people might think he’s being uppity to write about goodness and how to do more good.
It’s important to try to neutralize the unfair part of these attacks. That’s because enough attacks can poison someone’s reputation. It’s like what happens in politics. So take what is good in the criticism, but please actively push back against unfair and inaccurate attacks.
Step 27: How humanity can win the Three-Way Race
The video mentioned Cimino’s view that the decent people are racing against the increasing consequences of the problems we’ve created—and we’re racing against the people actively doing harm.
It’s easy to feel pessimistic or overwhelmed about the world’s situation. But Cimino believes that it’s vital to always remember and put into practice two things:
First, we must use whatever upgrades we can since they give increased leverage to repair the world faster. Thus, more lives can be saved; more people protected from great suffering oppression; and more of nature protected from destruction and toxins.
Second, we must never underestimate the power of small regular actions. For instance, at first it’s not obvious that small efforts in diet and exercise add up – but eventually we feel it and see it. Actions in the political realm and in the economy may seem invisible too, but they also add up, Almost all of Cimino’s upgrades make use of a viral spread, and of creating ongoing structures and patterns. So small actions from many people will make a greater difference, faster.
Of course we know this already that small actions add up, but when large organizations, whether corporations or governments, make large displays of power, it’s easy to feel powerless and it’s easy to give up. But it’s critical to never give up hope. People like Cimino are always developing large and small game-changing methods.
Cimino has a brother who made up the phrase “Raindrops make rivers” to remind people of the power of small actions. He himself added to it by writing, “Raindrops make rivers, and rivers move mountains.”
Cimino also wrote a parable about a meadow that horses and hornets shared. The horses were a million times bigger and they abused both the meadow and the hornets. But then a hornet realized that enough hornet stings in a horse’s tender parts could send a horse flying or even kill a horse. Most people already have five kinds of power: political power, economic power, social media power, direct impacts on the environment, and the ability to form new organizations. You are powerful already. Cimino urges you to maintain, build and exercise your power for your own long-term benefit, for those you care about, and for the welfare of others.
>> At this point, we’d like you to send us the document with your feedback on the upgrades, and your FARN options, if any. You can also add any other feedback or comments, and send them to timcimino@gmail.com.
Step 28: Write a brief email to many of your contacts.
This step and the next one are probably the most critical. The future of Group Genie and all the upgrades depend completely on building the organization. Person-to-person is the way we do it. Write an email asking friends and family to watch the video.
Here are two examples:
Subject line: Group Genie: a new creativity team and action network
Dear friends and family,
A friend sent me a video link that really gave me hope for the world. It’s about a new creativity team and action network called Group Genie. The founder, an ex-chemist, has invented seven potentially world-changing methods that can make people’s lives and the world significantly better.
After watching the video, I read about each idea in detail. I believe that most of them have huge potential! Group Genie has a strong plan for launching all seven ideas in 1-2 years total, so they can be used around the world by next year. It sounds incredibly fast, but the plan makes sense to me.
Please watch the video and learn about this as soon as possible! The sooner Group Genie gets feedback, volunteers and support, the sooner they can roll out these new “upgrades for humanity.”
Either one of these video links should work:
[Video links]
Jess
Subject Line: Seven possibly world-changing ideas! / Group Genie
Hello! I’m writing this to all my contacts.
A lot of people and groups are trying to do good in the world, but this is about the most world-changing approach I’ve ever seen!
An ex-chemist came up with seven powerful ideas or methods to improve the world. He’s developed a plan to launch them all incredibly fast — in two years. The plan actually makes a lot of sense. I watched the introductory video on this and then spent three hours looking into the details. The plan is realistic, and I’m participating in it.
I urge you to watch the intro video (12 minutes) and then spend time learning about the details. This novel approach really has given me more optimism and hope for the world than anything else I’ve seen. That’s because most of the methods can be used by anyone on Earth, and they can dramatically boost people’s ability to deal with problems and reach their life goals.
[Video links]
Brandon
Here are some do’s and don’ts for writing the email.
1. Use your own way of speaking. Don’t copy this email. Be yourself.
2. Put “Group Genie” somewhere in the subject line. If this spreads as we expect, then people who have already seen the video will get other emails similar to yours. We want them to be able to identify repeat requests quickly, so people don’t become annoyed.
3. Talk about the benefits and feelings you got from watching the video and doing the steps.
4. Make as strong a recommendation or endorsement as you can.
5. Don’t ask people you don’t know personally and well to watch the video. (We don’t want ministers, nonprofit leaders, and other local leaders to be inundated with requests to watch the video.)
Step 29: Follow up personally and gently with at least 10 people in three days
Your goal should be to have at least four people go through this entire process. Then you’re done! Then the chain reaction will go forward and Group Genie will get the people and funding it needs.
The follow-up should be in two steps. The first part is easy and quick. Simply ask if they saw the video. Something like this:
Tom,
Did you watch that Group Genie video I sent you three days ago? I’m very curious as to what you thought.
Jess
The second step is to encourage them to go through the process of these 30 steps.
Here are some do’s and don’ts:
1. Give people 2-3 days to look at video before you follow up.
2. When you write or talk to people, create a strong expectation that they will do it. Don’t just frame it as a favor to you. It’s something that can give them many benefits.
3. Make a list of the ten people (friends or family) who you think would be most interested in one or another of the upgrade. Or select the people who might help the most if they got involved.
4. Use your judgment as to whether an email follow-up or a phone call would be best (or maybe do an email, then a call.)
5. Personalize your message. Try to connect one or more of the upgrades to things that they care about. Someone might care deeply about their family; another person about doing good; a third person about the environment and nature; another person about their business and the economy. Connect one or more upgrades to what they care about, but explain to them why you’d like them to learn about all of the upgrades.
6. Don’t pressure people. We believe that this chain reaction will spread, and people will get many requests to do these steps. Eventually they will probably become curious enough to investigate.
7. However, if you don’t get follow-through, gently stress the importance of this work.
8. If they haven’t watched the video, you might summarize the part about an alien bringing seven new upgrades for humanity—but first you should show them the list of ten of the greatest upgrades, so they can understand what you mean by upgrade.
Here’s the list:
Major Upgrades for Humanity
Agriculture/farming (10,000 BCE)
Written language (3200 BCE)
Coin money (3000 BCE)
Rule of Law (3000 BCE)
Democracy (600 BCE)
Clock time
The Scientific Method
Mass Communications (telephone)
Internal combustion engine
The Internet
9. It’s likely that people will watch the video but balk at spending three hours to pass it on. Emphasize that it can be done a little at a time and that three hours and a few dollars are a small price to pay for seven global upgrades.
10. Research on influence shows that people often act more from a fear of losing something than a desire to gain something. So if you’ve tried other things, you might emphasize that the people who learn to use superprograms the soonest will get the edge. You can compare it to the Internet. Superprograms and the Internet are technologies that confer power on people, but the early adopters get relatively more power and advantage.
Step 30: Make a report
If you can’t get at least four people to do the process of passing it on, send us feedback on what did or didn’t seem to work. You might contact Tim Cimino or whoever passed the video to you for suggestions on how to remove certain obstacles.
If you did get people to pass it on, report the number in an email. We will add that to our totals and periodically publish the number of people who have participated, because it will encourage others!
If you didn’t get four people to pass it on in a week, you might occasionally ask people to investigate Group Genie when it naturally comes up. For instance, if you actually begin to use the CLEAR superprogram or participate in Proof Through the Night or use one of the Add-On resources, you might mention the benefits in conversation and make sure the person knows it’s another Group Genie innovation. But the key is to be natural and real.
Congratulations and Thanks!
If enough others do what you’ve done, the world will probably have seven world-scale upgrades by 2016. That would certainly improve the lives of billions of people. That would make this one of the most powerful things you’ve ever done.
You can now sit back and enjoy the unfolding drama! If you subscribed or joined the FARN, you will get periodic updates about progress. You’ll learn how many people have gone through these steps; how much crowd-funding has occurred; how many subscribers and volunteers we have; and you’ll learn about what the teams are accomplishing. You can feel good about