I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
Social Earth, an organization dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurship, has release Social Earth Video on their website. Social Earth Video is a broad collection of videos that include footage with top social entrepreneurs.
For the full article, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m7d9-Social-Earth-Video-launches-today
Tonight I was having dinner with my friend, Monika, and we were discussing how much time we spend at work and what that time really means to us and the people we work for. For us, it’s not about punching a clock and getting a bi-weekly paycheck. We’re giving of ourselves, choosing to spend a portion of our lives with our companies. Given that our time is the most valuable asset that any of us have, it’s a precious thing to spend so much of our time at work.
For the full article, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m7d8-The-life-in-our-time
“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli
In many instances, it’s easy to share. All we need is a bit of motivation and some generosity. Write a check to a charity, show someone how to do something you already know how to do, share knowledge by posting on a blog. Sharing is a small, often painless and free, gesture. Anyone from any socioeconomic level, of any age, in any geographic location on Earth can do it.
What Benjamin Disraeli is talking about is more substantive. It requires more commitment, more dedication, more patience than sharing alone. Revealing your own gifts and using them for the benefit of others is done over and over again every day in every corner of the world. To help someone else realize their own potential, to cultivate someone else’s knowledge and creativity, to give them the confidence to go out into the world and make an impact is something that needs much more time, intention, and attention.
The payback for helping an individual or an organization help others is immense, much greater than if we only share what we’ve got. There’s a multiplicative effect. We help someone help several others who in term each help several others and so on. Consider it a pyramid scheme of generosity, something the world desperately needs now more than ever.
Of course the best of all possible scenarios is that by sharing what we’ve got, we inspire others to share. Think about teachers, writers, and artists, and how they inspire the imaginations of others. Consider how small acts of kindness inspire the “pay it forward” mentality. While giving and sharing are important actions for each of us to take, we also need to encourage and teach them to others in our lives.
Today, the world said good-bye to Michael Jackson with all the fanfare, emotion, and celebration that should accompany the passing of someone who changed the world of entertainment forever. 50 short years of pushing the boundaries, taking risks, and going his own way inspired tens of millions of people across the globe.
I read an article in my alumni magazine about the book Plain, Honest Men by Dr. Richard Beeman. It describes the summer when a group of people gathered to write the Constitution of the United States. They made it up as they went along. They focused on writing a document to create a more perfect union, not a perfect union. In one summer, they formed the base laws that would govern a nation for centuries to come, a nation that would be the beacon of hope for people around the world.
Walt Disney wanted to build a place that captured creativity and inspired everyone who walked through its gates. From that park, he built an empire of innovation and entertainment that has caused the many millions of people who visit to wonder and dream. Walt Disney, and a team of believers, built the original Disneyland in 1 year.
Legacies are built one moment, one decision, one vision at a time. They require heart and passion and commitment. Time is the asset, not the constraint, that builds lasting impact. Michael Jackson, the fathers of our country, and Walt Disney are proof that there is a whole lot of living that can be done in a very short span of time.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Don Mathis, CEO of Epic Advertising. Don’s varied and accomplished career is a great example for all of us who have many professional interests that we’d like to pursue. He’s someone who has never been put into any one box. Don’s career took many twists and turns from the military to media to management consulting and now into advertising.
For the full interview, please visit: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m7d7-Interview-with-Don-Mathis-CEO-of-Epic-Advertising
I met Brian Moran, President of Moran Media Group, as a result of this column. He sent me an email after reading my post about the similarities of running a business and running a marathon. Brian’s entrepreneurial beginnings are a great lesson for all of us on the myth of job security and turning a challenge into a life-changing opportunity. He was kind enough to share his experience and advice during my recent interview with him.
“Life’s most urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
4th of July weekend is always an inflection point in my year. Somehow a switch flips in one area of my life or another and off I go. This year was no exception, except that I feel much more confident in this year’s 4th of July inflection point than I ever have any other year.
I’ve been batting around an idea for a social enterprise for a number of months. I’ve gone down a few different avenues and always ended up scrapping the plan. I had an idea of what I wanted the end result to be; I just didn’t know how to get there.
A few weeks ago I went down to DC for my friend Eric’s engagement party and was able to catch up with my friend, Liz, whom I used to work for in DC. She is one of the most talented researchers around and she has tremendous first-hand knowledge about urban education, exactly the area that I want to focus on for my social enterprise. I pitched my idea to Liz, and without blinking an eye she had a plan for my idea – how to execute it and how I could find funding.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve worked on a rough draft of the idea and passed it to a few people for review, one being Liz and another being my close friend, Amy, who has done work similar to what I’d like to do with this social enterprise. With their help I am revising the draft of my project, and their excitement over it has made me even more hopeful. I actually believe I can make a go of this.
Next I passed the draft on to a Twitter friend who is writing a book about social enterprise. He liked it so much that he asked if he could send it on to several friends of his for their input. Of course I whole-heartedly encouraged that!
While I’ve been so interested in entrepreneurship for some time and dabbled in it in one way or another at different points in my career, for the first time I am gaining the courage to take that plunge and never look back. So what’s different this time around? The motivation isn’t money or job security or what else the company might be able to earn for me. It’s motivated by this unrelenting idea to make a difference for urban public school kids who need this program. It’s a combination of timing and resources and passion for an idea. I know I can do this more than I’ve ever believed I can do anything. My answer to life’s most urgent question just couldn’t wait to be answered any longer. It’s just time.
I first found my way to Divvyshot though the Y Combinator site. Y Combinator is an investor in Divvyshot and after just a bit of exploration, it is very easy to see why Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, took an interest in the company. The photo sharing marketplace is certainly crowded. Luckily for Divvyshot, it’s a market crowded by many companies who have nearly identical service.
Sam Odio, founder of Divvyshot, identified three holes in the photo sharing market:
1.) Direct integration with the photographer’s computer photo library
2.) Ability for multiple people to contribute to one photo album
3.) Maintenance of a photo’s original resolution to preserve photo quality while sharing
Like many entrepreneurs, Sam took pain points, things that frustrated him, and crafted a solution. That solution is Divvyshot. I recently had the chance to interview Sam about his company, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his feelings about the current economy.
To view the full interview, please visit http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2901-NY-Business-Strategies-Examiner~y2009m7d5-Intreview-with-Sam-Odio-Founder-of-Divvyshot
“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless. Perhaps it is that the heart beats faster here than elsewhere.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir, America Day By Day
Spoken like a true insomniac. I don’t know for sure if Simone de Beauvoir had insomnia, though I do understand her sentiments about New York as she made her way across the U.S. in 1947. Her diary from that year long trek from one U.S. coast to the other became the book America Day by Day. Her first step that journey was off a plane and into New York.
There does seem to be an energy here in this city that I have not found in other places. Maybe it’s the subway rattling underneath the pavement or the soaring buildings that mask the city in a unique pattern of shade and light. I think though that it’s the people that are attracted to New York that give it its famous zing.
The trick to living here and staying sane is to take advantage of the energy while not wearing ourselves out, to find activities to fill our time that give us as much energy as they require. I’ve struggled with this idea at various times in my 11 year love affair with New York. While I’ve moved in and out of the city 4 times since first coming here in 1998, this last time I hit upon the magic combination: a stable income, lots of green space just outside more door, and confidence in who I am. I spend equal time with friends as I do alone. I found an activity I love, writing, that has nothing to do with how I pay my rent. All this combined has made for a magical life. Now all I need is a dog – and he’ll be arriving at my apartment this Fall.
Even when I wasn’t living here, New York was the center of my world. New York was really it for me. It always was; I just didn’t always know that. It’s the place where I feel most alive, where I feel most my true self. It’s the place where I can dream and imagine and wonder. It’s the place where I can appreciate and love the life I have, while also aspiring to be something more.
As it is with so many relationships, it took time away to realize what I had here in this tiny set of islands. New York is a place of constant improvement, continual opportunity, and hopeful exuberance. You really can be anyone here, all it takes is time and commitment and on occasion, a little patience. Lucky for us, Simone de Beauvoir was right: our need for sleep is less here, making accomplishment, and thereby happiness and fulfillment, all the more likely.
The photo above is the New York City skyline at night. You can find this photo at: http://nycwrites.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/nyc_manhattan_night.183194354_std.jpg
Yesterday my friend, Ken, called me with an incredible story that’s too good to keep to myself. Last Fall he lost his mom to a terminal respiratory disease that she had managed for a number of years. Ken was very close to his mom and he’s a rough go of it for the past 6 months. One of his friends gave him a gift certificate to a nearby greenhouse and nursery so he could buy a tree in honor of his mom to plant in his yard.
When Ken was a teenager, Evita had just opened on Broadway and the song “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was the mot popular song around. Ken’s mom used to crack herself up by changing up the words to “Don’t cry for me Sargent Tina…” She’d sing that all the time, making everyone around her laugh.
Ken was at the nursery yesterday with a friend, choosing a tree to honor his mom. They were specifically looking for a crabapple tree because of their beautiful flowers and found one they really liked. Variety: the Sargent Tina Crabapple. Maybe a coincidence…
Ken and his friend, Linda, get back to Ken’s house and plant the tree in the yard. They place the last shovelful of dirt around the tree and head back inside the house. Just as they get into the house, the song Hold Me Kiss Me Thrill Me was on the radio. That song was the only song Ken’s mother requested for her memorial service when she and Ken were choosing the music while his mom was in hospice. Coincidence, I think not…
Losing people is hard, though experiences like Ken’s remind me that we don’t ever lose the ones we love. They just cross over, and they’ll be there when we cross over, too. We’ll be with them again, and while it’s hard to accept that they don’t exist in the form in which we knew them and loved them, their love is still very much a part of our lives, always. Their love is truly all around us.
The photo above depicts the blossoms of a Sargent Tina Crabapple and is from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2072/3534629428_bef4ba6e37.jpg?v=0.
