Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

by Greg McKeown

By catching and rewarding people in the midst of “small wins,” Ward Clapham’s approach tapped into the power of celebrating progress. In one moving example, a police officer pulled over a teenager who had saved a girl from being hit by a car, gave him a Positive Ticket, and said: “You did a great thing today. You can make a difference.” The boy went home and put the Positive Ticket on his wall. After a few weeks his foster mother asked him whether he was going to cash it in. To her surprise he said he never would. An adult had told him he could be somebody, and that was worth more than free pizza or bowling. Multiply that type of positive interaction by forty thousand times a year for ten years and you can sense why it started to make a difference. Each time a young person was recognised and commended for doing something good, he or she was that much more motivated to continue doing good until, eventually, doing good became natural and effortless.