How a stormy evening turned into a crazy idea

My kids were just leaving for vacation.
Outside, a storm was raging. The wind was lashing the windows, and sitting there in the house, the evening suddenly felt pretty uncomfortable.

So I picked up my phone.
Opened Instagram. A few videos. Swipe. Next video. One more.

And at some point I paused and thought:
Is this really how I want to spend this evening?
A few seconds of entertainment, then the next video, then the next.

And yet today we're holding tools in our hands that can create things that were barely imaginable a few years ago. Artificial intelligence. Social media. People all over the world who can be connected within seconds.

So I asked myself a different question:
What if I used these possibilities for something meaningful, just once?

The news shows us plenty of things every day that make us afraid, angry, or sad.
So I thought:
Then I'll just create some good news myself.

And that's how an idea began.

I have no followers.
Not on Instagram.
Not on X.
Pretty much nowhere.
No big community. No known brand. No millions of people already waiting for a post from me.
Just me. And a thought.

But I believe in humanity.
I believe this world doesn't belong to just a few.
It belongs to all of us.

And maybe we humans are better than we sometimes seem.
Maybe we just need an idea to remind us.

I have two wonderful kids myself.
Kids who are doing well. Who get to laugh, have friends, and one day chase their own dreams.

And right as I was thinking about that, something hit me:
There are so incredibly many kids in this world who aren't doing well.
Kids who don't have the same chances.
Kids who don't know what they'll eat tomorrow.
Kids who have no safe place.
Kids who simply had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place.

And suddenly the thought was there.
What if we humans did something together?
Not the big promises.
Not "we'll save the world."
Just something very simple.

There are roughly 8.3 billion people on Earth.
And then came the crazy math:

One cent from every person would be around $83 million.

$83 million.
For children.

And I asked myself:
Can humanity even do this?
I don't know.

Maybe the idea is completely crazy.
Maybe nobody cares.
Maybe this post gets seen by a handful of people and then disappears somewhere on the internet.

But maybe something entirely different happens.
Maybe people share the idea.
Maybe people join in.
Maybe someone suggests supporting a children's project in their own country.
Maybe someone finds a project hardly anyone has heard of.
Maybe people come together who would never have met otherwise.
And maybe something grows out of it that becomes bigger than the original idea.

That's why THE HUMANITY BET exists now. A bet for humanity.

The idea is simple:
One cent.
One human.
One world.

I want to find out whether people all over the world can move something big for children, together.

And the crazy part?
I don't even know myself where this journey leads.
I don't have a finished master plan.
I don't have millions of followers.
I have no guarantee it'll work.
I just have this one idea.

And maybe that's exactly what's beautiful about it.
Because if we really want to change something, maybe we sometimes just have to start.

So I'm putting the bet out there:

THE HUMANITY BET

8.3 billion people.
$83 million.
For children all over the world.

I'm not betting against humanity.
I'm betting on it.

And now I want to find out if I'm right.

Are you in?