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A Good Idea Meetings at the Red Victorian Peace Cafe

Starting in June of 2008, almost every Tuesday evening, A Good Idea met at the Red Vic Peace Cafe in the historic Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. The weekly meetings served as the foundation for A Good Idea. The meetings and provided the space to build community and conceptualize "good ideas" .

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*Organized under the laws of California as a nonprofit corporation, A Good Idea is exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

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The AGI Story - "What was once just an idea...."

It's said that 90% of nonprofits are started due of an ended relationship...and while this is partially true in the case of A Good Idea, there's a bit more to the story that than. As this story has been told probably a couple hundred times and being that many of our most devoted volunteers have heard it a majority of those times, I thought I'd finally share the intimate details of how A Good Idea came to be on this web page...once and for all.

In April of 2008, I went through a life transformation or as I like to call it, a "1/3 life crisis". Like so many people, I was stuck in the doldrums of life...a stale relationship, an unfulfilling job, forgotten passions, and most importantly, unrealized dreams. I had spent 8 years following college doing sales and business development for a number of businesses, and while I had some great moments of success, something always felt off. Money was king and I was going to make as much of it as I could... but the more I made, the more stressed I became, the more my passions began to fade, and the more I stopped dreaming. I became numb and even worse... stuck. I was stuck because it was all I knew. I was doing what I thought society deemed "right" and I certainly did not want to let my family and friends down. It was the ultimate catch-22.

Enter Break Up. On a sunny afternoon in San Francisco my girlfriend and I had "the talk" and decided to call it quits. With her things gone and me alone in the house with the dog… things began to unravel. I could not eat or sleep. I was not sure when I would wake up happy again. Initially, I contributed my sadness and downward spiral to the ended relationship but soon realized it was more than that. From reading about the impact that meditation played on Elizabeth Gilbert's life in Eat, Pray, Love, I decided to look into meditation centers that had a group dynamic. Finding a center only minutes from where I was living, I decided to check it out. There I realized the importance of being around other individuals who could empathize with my situation and the power of meditation (which to me is nothing more than simply following your breath and silencing your mind.) The seed for what became A Good Idea was planted.

The Book. As I was beginning to get back on my feet and trying to understand my "spiritual self" a good friend introduced me to a book called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. This book changed my perspective of life. It stressed the importance of accepting and surrendering to one’s past and accepting what "is". It taught me to live in the present moment, to stop holding on to the past for identity, and to stop looking into the future for fulfillment. It challenged me to embrace the difficult time I was going through and to just sit with the pain and sadness. Everything that I was feeling was OK. Within days of truly accepting these simple philosophies, I decided I needed to share this and help other people through their transformations and those in need. I began reaching out to people where I could, through internet sources like Facebook and Craigslist, and through personal interactions. What started as just an idea became a mission. We had our first meeting on June 10th of 2008. The meetings began to evolve and we decided to start discussing topics that would encourage open conversation. What came from these meetings at the Red Vic Peace Cafe, as people began to open up and share their life experiences, were some of the most incredible moments I had ever experienced. What started out as 10 people in the meetings quickly grew to 25 then to 40. The energy and connection felt in the room at each meeting was incredible. Strangers were learning from each other and growing personally by connecting with likeminded individuals. Our group chose the name, A Good Idea (AGI), based on our ideas as we began discussing a first event which would help people unexpectedly and shake things up a bit in society. The group decided on conducting an event called Intentional Acts of Kindness where we would do acts of kindness to complete strangers. When the SF Chronicle decided to do a news piece we received over 250 emails from people who were inspired and wanted to be part of A Good Idea. That's when things really took off...

Meaning over money. After about the 7th meeting, I woke up one morning with this vision of me being 90 years old, on my death, with my legacy consisting of selling some software, visual marketing solutions, and never really doing anything of true importance. It was fortunate and unfortunate timing for this vision as my boss and the CEO of the company I was working for had flown in from NYC the night before to go on meetings I had set up for the past month. When I walked into the office that morning and started going over the meetings for the week all I could think about was my passion and excitement for what was building with A Good Idea and that vision of me being 90 years old with a boatload of regret. That's when I politely said "guys, I'm very thankful for the opportunity you've provided me, but I can't do it anymore. I quit." I remember walking out of the office that day with a massive weight lifted off of my shoulders. I went in to the office that morning with a great salary and left with my freedom. From that point on it was A Good Idea all the time. There was no coincidence that once I started following my passions the meetings grew exponentially, amazing people came out of the woodworks to help A Good Idea, and things started to really take shape. As we kept having our monthly events, the massive issue of homelessness became our focus and we started gathering large groups of people on a monthly basis to come together to serve the homeless members of our community. We began handing out food, hygiene products, warm clothes, and more, but also putting heavy emphasis on connecting with the people we served. We were taking the consciousness and presence that were being cultivated from the meetings and create a new way of serving people in need. Not just focusing on their basic survival needs such as food and clothes but their higher level needs such as esteem and belonging. To this day, in all of our events and programs, we stress the importance of how we are doing what we do versus only what we are doing.

The BIG Idea. After many more meetings and events, our Leadership Team started discussing other ways to create long-term change in our society. Around this time we learned of a full-scale rehabiliation center for the homeless in San Diego called Father Joe's Village. After visiting the village, meeting with their amazing staff, and learning about an incredible residential high school for homeless teens called Toussaint Academy of Arts & Sciences, we decided that we would start working towards bringing a similar high school to San Francisco called Hope Academy of Arts & Scieneces (HAAS). Since that initial visit, we've visited the village four times, formed a board of directors with this project in mind, and have built key relationships in the city that will help us bring HAAS to fruition. Homeless youth under the age of 17 years old is one of the fastest growing populations in San Francisco’s homeless community and Hope Academy will be the only long term residential program for homeless youth age 13-18 in San Francisco that offers fully accredited academic and support services on site. Our goal will be to offer a nurturing, supportive environment combined with a top-notch education. From the streets, to the classrooms, and beyond...

The future. A Good Idea is quickly approaching our two year anniversary and things are moving along quicker than ever. We recently were awarded the "Acts of Kindness" award by the American Red Cross and finished in the top 100 (out of 500,000 nonprofits nationally) in the Chase Community Giving contest on Facebook. Our volunteer base is growing rapidly and the number of AGI supporters is now upwards of 6,000 people. I am constantly humbled by the inspiring emails from people all over the country who have been moved by our events. We are in the process of expanding to three new cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, and Gainesville, FL) and are putting together new events and programs to help more and more people. This is an exciting time for our organization and I truly believe this is just the beginning.

Thanks. I want to personally thank each and every person who has been a part of this journey in any way. Whether you participated in an AGI event, sent me an email with your good idea, spread the word about our events, or even after hearing about A Good Idea, had just a little bit more hope, you've provided us the inspiration for us to do what we do. We like to think of A Good Idea as not just a nonprofit, but as a movement. A Good Idea is a culmination of dreams, hopes, and positive social change ideas that make our world a better place. It's as simple as a smile to a stranger on the street or as grand as a full-scale residential high school for homeless teens. A Good Idea is about connections. Connections between volunteers, between people in need with people looking to help out, and possibly the most important of all, connection to one's authentic self. The place where we can better understand our own passions, dreams, abilities, and purpose. Everyone is in need of something...whether it's a a basic survival need such as a meal or a jacket or a higher level need such as inspiration or purpose, we believe the simple act of connecting with others in the name of positive social change can satisfy all of our needs. I will forever be changed by the amazing people I've met the last two years. It's amazing...when attempting to help change someone else's life how much you change your own. FInally, A Good Idea is about what our name says...good ideas. Here in San Francisco we focus on serving the homeless and underserved youth while also doing kind acts for strangers, but each city has it's own set of social issues and everyone is passionate about different things. The best part about changing the world is that each of us has an amazing ability to do so, starting as soon as we'd like, and it's free. If we don't have money to give, we can give our time and talents and being more kind and compassionate costs us nothing. So I ask...what's your good idea?

With much love and respect,

Jared Paul

Founder, A Good Idea