Adam Brucker

Earlier today, my buddy Herb spilled the beans on his blog about the immediate future of his Domino Theory project. He also mentioned my planned involvement over the next few months in helping to drive his vision forward.

Rather than rehash the particulars, which you can read about HERE, I’d like to share a story with you about why I’m attracted to this project and the potential that I think it has.

This past Friday morning I hurried out of my garage at 7:50, already cutting it close for an 8:00 business meeting. The light at the end of my street has a notoriously long red signal (seems like 4 or 5 minutes sometimes) so you can imagine my frustration when there was a person blocking the middle of the street as I pulled up just at the tail end of the green.

Of course the light quickly turned yellow and then red, leaving me stranded for the foreseeable future with the further irritation of potentially being late, something that drives me even more nuts than missing this particular light.

Taking a closer look, I realized the person in the road was carrying a white cane and seemed somewhat disoriented and upset. “Great,” I thought, “I’m getting myself worked up over a blind person having trouble crossing the street. Who’s the #$*&#@ now?”

I rolled down my window and asked the woman if she needed help. I couldn’t hear exactly what she said, but it was clear that she was both distressed and oblivious to the fact that she was standing in the middle of a side street, just a few feet away from the busiest road in my town, during the height of rush hour.

I threw the car in park (knowing I had a few minutes before the light turned green again) and hopped out to help her to the side of the road. Turns out that she had gotten off at the wrong bus stop on her way to work and had no idea where she was, even though she had gone just a few blocks too far. In addition to being blind, I believe that she may have been somewhat mentally disabled (is that the P.C. term these days?) as well. In any case, she was really worked up over her self-proclaimed, “stupid mistake.”

Having a hard time communicating with her, and realizing that my car was now blocking the road, I asked her to stay put and told her that I would be back in 60 seconds. Just as I finished parking at a nearby gas station, she made another hair-raising attempt at crossing the street on her own.

Hustling back to the woman, I escorted her out of the intersection and then down the sidewalk towards the fast-food restaurant that she worked at. She began to calm down as we slowly made our way to where she needed to be and it was interesting to see how she immediately noticed when we passed the correct bus stop and the start of her usual route.

Now back on track, she assured me that she could take it from there by herself and I watched, still a little bit nervous - yet quite impressed and relieved - as she expertly navigated the remaining 100 yards, using only her cane and her memory of the correct route.

Now, I tell you this story not in search of any recognition, and not because I think I’ve suddenly become the Dali Lama (remember, 10 minutes prior I was on the verge of honking at a blind person stuck in the middle of an intersection), but instead to illustrate a larger point.

I’d like to think that I did what any ordinary person confronted with a similar situation would have done, but unfortunately that’s just not the case. There were a bunch of cars in front of me that just drove around this woman without stopping to offer any help, and I’ll even admit that I initially had the same thought. It’s somehow become an easy thing to do in the world that we live in these days.

So what made me stop - above and beyond just a sense of common decency - knowing that helping this woman would make me late for my meeting and be an experience that would be out of my ordinary comfort zone? Well, all other things being equal, I have to chalk it up to talking with Herb about his “Domino Theory” over the past 4 or 5 months.

There is a powerful cumulative effect to DT that creates a positive feedback loop that is undeniably effective in driving real changes in behavior. Simply talking about the ideas, or even just hearing about other people’s positive experiences, makes a difference. Actually taking some small actions, as I’ve done over the past few months, and realizing the benefits of doing so first hand (no matter how intangible they may be), leads to more actions and the increased confidence that even bigger things are possible.

I’d love to tell you that the Adam of 6 months ago would have stopped to help that woman, but, to be perfectly honest, I’d have given it 50 / 50 odds at best. Based on the other driver’s behavior that day, and just looking around at similar situations, I’d say that our society overall is batting at an even lower average. Clearly this is a problem.

So, my thanks go out to Herb for including me up to this point and I’m excited to be involved at an early stage with something that has the potential to make a positive and real impact on the world. Much more to come in the next few months…