Alex Sheen stepped onto the stage at the FBLA Fall Rally with a powerful message: Be true to your word. And if someone asks why you did it, why you kept your promise, simply reply “Because I said I would.” Though Sheen may not be the most good looking nor the most charismatic (so he said himself) his message commanded attention.
On September 4th, 2012, Sheen’s father passed away due to lung cancer. He gave his father’s eulogy, titled “because I said I would,” describing the way his father kept all of his promises, something that is rare in today’s society. Acknowledging the importance of keeping promises and commitments, recognizing that doing so would ultimately lead to a better world in which we constantly battle temptation to take back our words, Sheen founded because I said I would, a nonprofit organization that seeks to “better humanity through promises made and kept” of all degrees. Whether it be to spend more time with family or to overcome an addiction, because I said I would encourages everyone to keep their promises and make the world a better place.
To do so, Sheen created “promise cards.” They weren’t anything special, but rather plain cards with “because I said I would” written in small text at the bottom right corner. But they reinforced the following “7 Elements of Honor” : compassion, self-control, sacrifice, honesty, hope, contemplation and most importantly, accountability. The idea is that when you write a promise on a card and give it to the person you are making the promise to, you are bound to that promise. Once you fulfill that promise, you take your card back, signifying that you have kept your word.
Sheen began this project in hopes of making a difference, to share the message of the importance of a promise with those around him. But the last thing he expected was to draw the attention of an entire nation and then the world. Within a matter of weeks, Sheen received calls to appear on national platforms including CNN, Good Morning America, Fox News, and NPR. Following such exposure, the demand for promise cards skyrocketed. Sheen described his astonishment as five requests a day became fifty, fifty became five hundred and five hundred became five thousand. As of today, over 4.47 million cards have been distributed across nearly 153 countries. Sheen had gone viral. And because I said I would had become a social movement.
Thus what began as a small reminder of the incredible impact of keeping a single promise came to be a revolutionary force in changing how people viewed their promises and the lightness with which promises were regarded.
As Sheen concluded his speech, he stressed that although it may be hard, although we might be alone in the journey to fulfill a promise, it is one worth making. And through because I said I would, we are reminded that one promise at a time, the world could be a better place.
