The Five-Minute Favor
In 2012, a LinkedIn recruiter named Stephanie was asked to list the three people who had the most
influence on her career. Adam Rifkin was shocked to learn that he appeared on her list, because they
had met only once, months earlier. Stephanie was searching for a job and met Rifkin through a friend
of a friend. He gave her advice, primarily by text message, and helped her find job leads. She e-
mailed him to express her gratitude and offered to reciprocate: “I know we only met in person once
and we talk only occasionally, but you have helped me more than you know... I really would like to
do something to help give back to you.”
But Stephanie wasn’t just looking to help Adam Rifkin. Instead, she volunteered to attend a 106
Miles meeting of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs so she could help Rifkin help them. At the meeting,
Stephanie would give entrepreneurs feedback on their ideas, offer to test their product prototypes, and
facilitate connections with potential collaborators and investors. The same thing has happened with
many other people whom Rifkin helps. Raymond Rouf often drops by 106 Miles meetings to assist
other entrepreneurs. So does an engineer named Bob, who met Rifkin in a bar in 2009. They struck up
a conversation, and Rifkin learned that Bob was out of work, so he made some introductions that
landed Bob a position. The company went out of business, and Rifkin made more connections that
resulted in a job for Bob at a start-up, which was acquired six months later by Google. Today, Bob is
a successful Google engineer, and he’s paying the help he received forward across the 106 Miles
network.
This is a new spin on reciprocity. In traditional old-school reciprocity, people operated like
matchers, trading value back and forth with one another. We helped the people who helped us, and we
gave to the people from whom we wanted something in return. But today, givers like Adam Rifkin are
able to spark a more powerful form of reciprocity. Instead of trading value, Rifkin aims to add value.
His giving is governed by a simple rule: the five-minute favor. “You should be willing to do
something that will take you five minutes or less for anybody.”
Rifkin doesn’t think about what any of the people he helps will contribute back to him. Whereas
takers accumulate large networks to look important and gain access to powerful people, and matchers
do it to get favors, Rifkin does it to create more opportunities for giving. In the words of Harvard
political scientist Robert Putnam, “I’ll do this for you without expecting anything specific back from
you, in the confident expectation that someone else will do something for me down the road.” When
people feel grateful for Rifkin’s help, like Stephanie, they’re more likely to pay it forward. “I have
always been a very genuine and kind-hearted person,” Stephanie says, “but I had tried to hide it and
be more competitive so that I could get ahead. The important lesson I learned from Adam is that you
can be a genuinely kind-hearted person and still get ahead in the world.” Every time Rifkin
generously shares his expertise or connections, he’s investing in encouraging the people in his
network to act like givers. When Rifkin does ask people for help, he’s usually asking for assistance in
helping someone else. This increases the odds that the people in his vast network will seek to add
value rather than trade value, opening the door for him and others to gain benefits from people they’ve
never helped—or even met. By creating a norm of adding value, Rifkin transforms giving from a zero-
sum loss to a win-win gain.
When takers build networks, they try to claim as much value as possible for themselves from a