By Masami Sato
What we should do when things go bad.
When the financial market is in chaos all across the world, people consider clinging on to whatever they have and also reduce expenses. And they think that everybody does so, mainly because newspapers proclaim as such.
Everyone ISN`T acting that way of course. In fact, some people and some businesses thrive no matter where the economy is going. And when you look for why that is, you find that the answer often lies in a simple place where most people have never even looked. Let's explore together.
When a current is going downward, whatever the reason be, the way to survive is by rowing against the current. If we let ourselves to be swept away by the current, we may sink deep down and survival might become difficult.
The truth is that when we know how to steer ourselves and be our own masters, we will able to stay afloat or swim against the current, come what may. Let us see how we can manage it.
'Go-getters' or 'Go-givers'
Consider a situation where we want much more - fatter profit, a salary boost, lengthier holidays, better freedom, and better prospects.
When we want something, the first thing we tend to do is to go and get it. So, we call ourselves 'Go-getters'. And being a 'go-getter' is, let's face it, a sign of leadership, activism and an early-adopter mindset. This is of course one of the keys to the success formulae we often read about. But there is a problem. It turns out that when we use this 'strategy', there are some unexpected (but quite predictable) consequences.
The crux of the problem is that after 'getting' and 'owning' a thing, what eventually happens is 'dropping' it. We either actually throw it away or become indifferent to it.
Then our interest swings to something else. This continuous swaying of interest is the biggest issue; the widening interests becoming a never-ending circle of desires so that we are never satisfied with what we have. It becomes a sort of junk food dependency!
Why don't we turn our 'getting' into contributing?
You've probably noticed that giving always creates a great feeling. And it comes from gratitude rather than from fear or greed. We can continue to give more and receive more on our now, ever-fulfilling journey.
Our abundant and providing attitude creates abundant and providing clients and team mates while our cost awareness and 'getting approach' would draw towards us only similar clients and team mates. And those are the type of people we would not like to be friends with!
Inspiring capitalism
Many businesses see this now. They are now starting to give more and more in various ways. There's a veritable 'sea-change' going on as more people 'get' the role that giving can play in their business. Bill Gates is a class example. In a July 2008 lead article in TIME Magazine he referred to it as 'Creative Capitalism'.
He said: "Doing good might be the tipping point that leads people to choose one product over another."
The essence of what he says is that when a business has ties with the idea of giving in one way or other, it is bound to be more tempting to others. It stands out above thousand businesses the attributes of which are similar.
Creative Capitalism is the idea of taking things a step higher than the destination at which one would have originally chosen to make the compromise. When we can leverage our visions and initiatives in a way that helps and promotes the needs of the global society, we are conserving things, efforts and abilities in trying to win pro tem. Then we begin fashioning genuine success for us as well as for supporting our global financial system.
The attraction of effective giving
CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is the word used for delineating the process of business establishments giving back to the community. It is becoming an obligation on the part of enterprises to do so. But when they donate as a duty or just for creating a good impression, it would soon become easy to make out. However, it works as an interim ploy for survival.
Individuals and enterprises that 'contribute', appeal to everyone. Their fervour and conviction about what they do are acknowledged by the people with whom they build up relationships. This acknowledgement is in addition to the official public relations campaign of the establishment.
So, what happens if we allocate some of the marketing budget to go toward giving?
Giving gives rise to something greater than what we actually are. It has the power to inspire. And true inspiration is possible only when it echoes on the people whom we want to enthuse. And we are enthused only when we put our heart and soul into the procedure. It is simply not sufficient to listen to the interesting tales. One has to become part and parcel of the whole process. Everyone has this inclination to make one's own input - to one's immediate relatives, friends, and to the society at large.
Transaction-based giving makes it inevitable
The facility for contributing became so much simpler because of a programme (or one can say a 'development') called Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the heart of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving revolutionises things. Let us use our creativity and analyse how.
How would you like the scenario whereby every time you have a coke at a nearby eatery, a needy child in Africa gets clean water at least for a single day?
Or a different scenario where with every subscription to a journal that you would like to read, a sapling gets planted somewhere where it was badly needed? Or whenever you ate out, someone routinely got fed out of its profit?
Or let's say you're being coached in your business. How interesting would it be to know that a child was educated for one month as a direct result (and by the way, all it cost the coaching company to do that was 60 cents per day).
Where a motivational speaker at a conference is connected with a charity, part of his income might go to helping kids who have speech problems due to facial defects. It will be a matter of great satisfaction for the participants at the conference to know that their very participation is helping a deserving cause.
Imagine now if you could apply transaction-based giving in your own unique way to match your main products/services to engage your customers and team members to be part of the giving story. Here's how.
The economy where all benefits
Already, companies right around the world are 'getting' the power of this transaction-based giving. Just one example-the UK's leading supermarket chain, TESCO now gives a school uniform to a child in Kenya whenever a customer buys a pair of school trousers.
Volvic is a Mineral Water Company that launched its scheme of transaction-based giving program last year. They help the cause of making wells in Africa. They call the scheme Buy1 GIVE 10 as it helps in generating a flow of 10 litres of water in the well, by every single litre of water they sell.
Middle level and comparatively small enterprises are now in the forefront in widening this global giving phenomenon through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with an effective strategy which has turned this transaction-based giving into a movement that anyone who wants can participate in.
Buy1GIVE1 is the home of the most impactful transaction-based giving in the world because it connects any business of any size to any cause in the world. It's creating a global community of business givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 connects businesses, their customers AND charities in a way that hasn't been done before. And it all happens automatically.
Any person can become a citizen of this phenomenon of global giving merely by getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. Those who have their own enterprise can become a B1G1 Business through applying online and selecting the charity and the primary service or product for launching the giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards the entire contribution amount to their international Worthy Cause Partners (more than 528 projects are available for members to choose from) thereby making their contributions highly productive.
Have you considered?
* Half the population of the globe -about three billion people-is forced to survive on less than two dollars a day.
* Even in the 21st century, which is the age of the internet, there are about a billion people who have never put a pen to a paper.
* UNICEF has reported that more than 30,000 children die every day due to abject poverty, which makes it 20 child a minute and 210,000 a week.
* A mere 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of its water; and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.
* About a billion people have no access to minimum health care facilities.
* Every year about 63,000 square miles of rainforests get decimated.
Data From Global Issues
Buy1GIVE1 Businesses- scrutinize these examples
* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)
* Instruction to Instruction (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)
* Medical practice providing healthcare (www.primanora.com)
* Telephone card helping in communication (www.ultimatecomms.com)
* Meditation to restoration (www.meditate.com.au)
* Shedding pounds to providing food for children (www.bodychain.com)
* Luminous blinds to luminous classrooms (www.blindscouture.com.au)
* Socks for comfort to feet free of frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com)
* Coaching to educate social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)
* And to get a complete picture, just go to www.b1g1.com.
Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature's eternal secret
So let's let us return to the starting point-turbulent economics and managing to get what we need. The needs are in fact not all that knotty. They are just a group of three words that begin with the letter S - strong bonds, solidarity and society.
When we can team up rather than break up and thus create a perfect way to combine resources rather than carry away from one another, we will perceive that there is so much more profusion and so many reserves present on the planet. And when we build relationships, not just with one another but with our innate selves, we understand something infinitely beautiful-that we're all ONE. Then we realise how simple it is to form an international society from something as commonplace as giving.
And the truth is there in all its glory in nature.
In earth's natural workshop, beautiful butterflies fertilize flowers and help to produce gardens that continue generation after generation. It was there even before recorded history.
When a fiasco inundates the world, it should be leveraged to turn it into a benefit to return to normalcy. Now is the time to acknowledge what we have got and forge ahead to succeed.
And when you choose to start giving today, you will feel so much better despite the economic challenges. And when you feel better you will discover a renewal of hope and you will remember all tides change and the down will soon be up. Giving today is the one thing that you can do to change everything.
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