Tausende gute Menschen
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How Wishes and the Good People Map came about — the real story

There are actually two stories. One for Önskemål, one for Good People Map. I'll tell them as they happened. The first. A long time ago I drove to Jönköping to take my driving test. It was far. There was a fishing camp I wanted to look at, deep in the forest. Really deep — maybe twenty minutes by car from the nearest village, nothing around but pine trees and small lakes with trout. Just trees. I was driving with a man sitting next to me as I practiced before the exam. We drove to the camp, parked by a lake, were going to drive on. The man next to me said: back up, we'll head that way. There was stuff in the car blocking the rear window. I reversed. Bang — into the headlight of another car parked there. A woman had driven through the forest, parked, gotten out to relieve herself. I stayed and waited for her. When she came she started shouting. Then her husband called and said to her on the phone: shut up, woman. If he stayed and is giving you his information — be glad. The insurance will sort it out. I remembered that story for a long time. The forest. That we were completely alone there. An accident, no one around. And how strange it was that there was no easy way for her to ask for help or find witnesses — only hope and luck. That story became the foundation for Önskemål.se — a place where, in Sweden, you can find help or offer it. A simple task marketplace. Pay for a service or earn money by solving someone else's task. BankID-verified, secure payment. It's a paid tool for Sweden. The second story. A few years later I was driving the family from Lichófusch toward Filipstad. I typed "Filipstad" into Google Maps and the navigator showed a short route. We went. Just forest. Forest, forest, forest. It was getting dark, it was winter, snow on the roads. Sometimes animals ran at the edge of the headlights. Almost no houses. Only occasional ones, by isolated roads. We approached a place where the road slopes downward. I said I'm afraid to drive down. The family said: the navigator says we're in Filipstad in three minutes. I pressed the gas lightly. The car slid immediately. Under the snow was ice. Solid ice, just dusted with snow. The car slid into a hollow between two roads. Ice behind us. Ice with snow on top in front. I tried to drive forward. Nothing. Back. Nothing. The car wouldn't move. Just ice. I got out to check the back camera. Underestimated how slippery it was. Fell very hard and dislocated my left shoulder. My right shoulder had been operated on recently. And now I fell on the left one and twisted it out. The pain was terrible. I set the shoulder back myself. Got into the car. No signal. Couldn't reach anyone. No tow truck, no one. The only number that occasionally got through was 112. My wife was in shock. The child behaved calmly but everyone was stressed. My hands started shaking from the stress. I understood we were maybe fifteen, twenty minutes from the nearest village, and we couldn't get out by ourselves. The phone battery was draining. The car was getting cold. Somehow through 112 we reached the police. The connection kept breaking. The police called a tow truck. The tow truck came. Couldn't pull us out. Went back for chains. Came back with chains on its wheels. With great effort pulled us out. And just as it lowered us onto the ground — its own tires exploded. The tow truck rolled over on its side. Thank God we reached 112. It was then, sitting in that car, that I thought: What if I could just write in a chat. Any chat. And someone nearby would see it. A neighbor with a tractor, someone in one of the few houses, anyone. Even if the signal broke — if someone had already seen the message, help would already be on its way. Not 112. Not a tow truck from the city. Just a neighbor 3 km away who knows I'm stuck. There was no such thing. Önskemål was good for Sweden, but it's a paid service. For emergency help between neighbors — something that needs to exist for everyone, even those without money — something else was needed. So I built Good People Map. A year later, maybe a year and a half, it started taking shape. A map where neighbors help neighbors — globally, not just Sweden. And specifically that function — the SOS that reaches verified neighbors within 10 km — I decided it must be almost free for everyone. Not premium. Not behind a paywall. Just there, for whoever needs it. Verification costs a symbolic amount (around 1 krona with a promo code), only to keep bots out. Not to make money. Two stories. Two services. One idea: There must be a way for people to find each other when needed.