Author Sam Demma brings good will to London
On Thursday, Bestselling author and Canadian speaker Sam Demma comes to London as part of his cross-country tour dedicated to his new book Return on Goodwill.
The tour, dubbed Return on Goodwill Live, sees Demma sharing stories and the impacts of the goodwill he has received from others throughout his life, and championing the world he hopes to be part of. One that focuses on “return on goodwill” rather than return on investment.
For Demma, the fundamental difference between the two is expectation.
“Return on investment, there’s always an expectation. When you give money to a financial advisor, you’re not doing it for fun — you have an expectation attached to the giving. You’re hoping to get more back,” says Demma, in an interview with Antler River Media. “But if you do that with goodwill… you’re going to be disappointed nine times out of 10.”
Goodwill, as Demma describes, focuses on generosity. Doing favours, lending a hand, generally being helpful without expecting a benefit to self. As Demma shares, “the return on goodwill you get is the person you become by choosing to live that way — you change as a result of living this philosophy.”
Demma’s beginnings stem from such a philosophy. Once a young athlete in Pickering, Ont. with big dreams and a potential full-ride scholarship to play professional soccer in the US, he suffered career ending injuries and had to change his plans for his future. That change saw him motivated to take small consistent actions, inspired by his teacher Michael Loudfoot, which led to him co-founding a weekly volunteer trash pickup program called PickWaste.
After a couple years of running PickWaste, encouragement from friends and educators saw him bring his story on stage. From sharing the message of PickWaste to encouraging people to make their own changes, to delivering TEDx talks.
One cold email invite to the Canadian Student Leadership Association saw executive director Dave Conlon drive two hours to watch Demma deliver his talk. “I’d never met Dave before and he didn’t know me — he showed up, sat in the crowd, watched the talk and after he did [he] opened so many doors for me for no other reason than he wanted to support,” says Demma. “I think that was a really beautiful moment of goodwill.”
Reflecting on his life, Demma recalls dozens of these pivotal goodwill moments. Someone showing up for him, believing in him, giving him an opportunity or a path forward. It’s a way of life he has sought to share through his own work, both in his speeches and his writing.
In Return on Goodwill, Demma highlights other moments of goodwill that friends and strangers have experienced. For Demma, the inclusion of these moments from others helps share the idea of goodwill resonate with audiences.
“It’s one thing for me to talk about all these experiences I’ve had,” he says. Concerned that audiences might think the idea of goodwill can only be for people who have ‘made it,’ the book features goodwill moments from everyday people walking their dogs to people doing charity runs. One moment shared talks about complimenting en elderly woman on a walk, and the goodwill and impact such an action carried. “There’s so much magic if we choose to pause long enough to be present and talk to people.”
In the book’s introduction, Demma makes a single request to the readers. The request being that if they are motivated to put the book’s ideas into action and are led to a moment of goodwill, he asks that they share it with him by email.
Already receiving dozens of moments from readers and event attendees, his October 8 show in London makes Demma’s second last stop on his Return on Goodwill Live tour. Tickets are available through the Palace Theatre website, with copies of the book available with ticket purchase or at the venue.
