What we should be doing when the economy is down.
When the financial market is unstable worldwide, the first reaction of most people is to hold on to what they have and also cut costs. They also presume that practically everyone is doing the same thing, as that is the impression that newspapers create.
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.
Whenever there is a downward trend, whatever it is, the best way to overcome it is by rising higher than it. If we drift with the wind and go where it takes us, we might find ourselves in dire straits, waiting for the wind\’s mercy for deliverance.
The fact is that when we know our strength and can hold sway over ourselves, we can rise above the mundane and not worry about what is going on all around. Let us visualise it properly.
\’Go-getters\’ or \’Go-contributors\’
Consider a situation where we want much more – fatter profit, a salary boost, lengthier holidays, better freedom, and better prospects.
When we yearn for a thing, our response is to try to get it. By that yardstick everybody is a \’Go-getter\’. And a \’go-getter\’ is understood as a dynamic, enterprising person with leadership qualities. Such an attitude is a prime requirement for succeeding in life as we understand it. Nevertheless, there is an innate conundrum. When these approaches are put into practice, there are certain unanticipated, though unavoidable upshots.
Because after \’getting\’ and \’having\’ it what tends to follow is \’losing\’ it. We either lose it physically or we lose interest in what it was we got.
And when we are tired of one thing we concentrate on getting something new. And these fresh cravings never end. The more we go in search of newer things, the wider the chain of desire that makes us continuously yearn for things. It simply becomes an addiction!
So what if we turned our \’desire to get\’ into a desire to provide?
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!
Creative capitalism
Most ventures are today aware of the inspiring role of capitalism. They are ever ready to contribute more through many avenues. The idea has strongly impacted the business world as they realise how giving is central to business interests. A typical example is Bill Gates, who expounded the philosophy of \’Creative Capitalism\’ in July 2008 in a TIME magazine article.
He said: \”Doing good might be the tipping point that leads people to choose one product over another.\”
The gist of what Bill Gates is saying is that when an enterprise is associated with the idea of providing in any manner, that enterprise and its products become more appealing to clients. It carves out a niche for itself far above that of others.
Creative Capitalism is about rising above what we reluctantly settle for to reach what we truly aspire to. When we can capitalise on our ideas and imagination in a way that benefits and nurtures the wider community and network; we stop wasting our resources, efforts and talents in trying to temporarily win. We start creating the real win for ourselves and for the sustainability of our global economy.
The charm of effective giving
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the phrase that\’s often used to describe giving back at a corporate level. It\’s becoming almost a required part of corporate business practice. Yet when it\’s done out of a sense of obligation or with the intent to just make ourselves look good, people eventually get what it is. It still is a temporary strategy.
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.
What would be the result if part of the amount that is meant for marketing is diverted towards charity?
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 ability to give just got so much easier too, thanks to an initiative (some would say a \’movement\’) called Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the home of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving changes everything. Let\’s use some imagination to see why.
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?
Equally exemplary would be the situation where whenever someone subscribes to a magazine, a tree would instantly get planted in a barren patch in another continent? Or, if every time one eats a hamburger another would instantly get at least a handful of rice?
Consider the scenario of someone attending a coaching session. It would be commendable if someone who needs similar coaching would get it as a direct consequence (and just at the cost of not more than 60 cents for the day\’s coaching).
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 the perfect scenario where transaction-based giving can be applied in one\’s own special manner to correspond with the available products and services to include every member of the group and customers. It is possible.
The real win-win economy
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.
The Mineral Water Company known as Volvic is one that has followed swiftly in this transaction-based giving program. They connect their water selling to well digging in Africa and call it Buy1 GIVE 10, because when one litre of water is sold, the money that comes from it helps in making a 10 litres flow in the well that is being dug.
Lesser to middle level businesses have now begun to spearhead the movement of increasing the idea of global giving through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a procedure that has turned this transaction-based giving into something each and every human being can be part of.
Buy1GIVE1 is the abode of the most powerful transaction-based giving in the world because it ties up any enterprise of any size to any worthy cause in the world. It is creating an international community of entrepreneurial givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 correlates enterprises, their buyers AND causes in an unsurpassable way. The system has been so perfected that it is automated.
You can become a citizen of this global giving movement by simply getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. And if you own a business you can become a B1G1 Business through a simple online application and select your cause for your main product or service to kick-start you\’re giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards 100% of the contributions to their international Worthy Cause Partners (there are now over 528 projects you can select) making the giving even more effective.
Are you aware?
* Half the world-nearly three billion people-live on less than two dollars a day.
* Even when the new millennium dawned there were still almost a billion people who were illiterate.
* 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.
* Medical aid is not available for one billion people of the world population.
* Every year about 63,000 square miles of rainforests get decimated.
Data From Global Issues
Buy1GIVE1 Businesses-check out these examples
* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)
* Instruction to Instruction (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)
* Medical practice providing healthcare (www.primanora.com)
* Phone card to human interaction (www.ultimatecomms.com)
* Mind Expansion to curing (www.meditate.com.au)
* Losing weight to feeding children (www.bodychain.com)
* Aesthetic blinds to lights to schools (www.blindscouture.com.au)
* Socks for feet to socks for social effect (www.socksforhappypeople.com)
* Learning to educating social organizers (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)
* And for an overall look, simply go to www.b1g1.com.
Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature\’s eternal secret
So let\’s come back to where we started-economic turmoil and getting what we want. What we all really want is actually very simple. You can sum it up with \’C\’ words – connection, collaboration and community.
When we can collaborate instead of isolate and when we can create an effective way to add to each other instead of taking away from each other, we discover there is so much abundance and resource already available in our world. And when we connect, not just with each other but with our true selves, we discover something really interesting-that we\’re all ONE. Then we understand how easy it is to create a global community from something as simple as giving.
And the truth is there in all its glory in nature.
In nature, bees and butterflies pollinate flowers and create sustainable flower gardens for many generations to thrive on. It\’s been in front of us all along!
When a crisis hits the world, we can see an opportunity to get back to the simplicity. It is now actually time to be grateful for what we have in order for us all to keep thriving.
And when a person opts to begin giving today itself, the sense of euphoria would be much more, notwithstanding the economic problems. And with this sense of elation comes a reawakening of hope that will remind him of how the power and direction of tide can easily change. And his giving might be that which brings about this change.
Discover more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.