Facing Crisis With A Positive Outlook

What we should do when things go bad.

When the global financial market is in turmoil the first thing most people think of doing is holding onto things and cutting expenditure. And they automatically assume (because the newspapers tell them) that everyone is acting that way.

Everyone ISN`T responding in that manner. There are many people and many ventures that flourish, whether the economy is down or not. And if you are wondering why it is so, the solution is available there where it is often likely to be overlooked. It will be a good idea to search for the answer 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-contributors’

Imagine a scenario where we want to have more – better profits, a higher salary, more leave, better liberty, and wider chances.

When we have a desire for an object, our first tendency is to straightaway go and have it. That just makes us ‘Go-getters’. And a ‘go-getter’ is surely a self-motivated person, an activist and a natural leader. Such a vision is a proven way to succeed in life as we have heard. Still, there is some sort of a snag. When this plan is brought into play, the results are somewhat surprising though in a way it is foreseeable as well.

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.

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 might be conscious that the act of contributing produces a unique pleasure. This arises from gratification and not from alarm or self-indulgence. One can go on contributing and get so much in return like a most rewarding expedition.

Our charitable and contributing approach will produce charitable and contributing customers and group mates whereas our concern about the cost and “getting tendencies” would bring in only like-minded co-workers. Companionship with such people is surely not welcome for us!

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 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 charm of effective giving

The initiative of bigger enterprises to contribute back to the society is known as Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. It is fast becoming mandatory for large corporations to do so. Still, when it is done for image building or as a mere compulsion, public may eventually realise the truth. Nevertheless, it is a face-saving mechanism.

However, ‘giving’ people and businesses always attract more. The passions and beliefs behind what they do are shared with the people with whom they connect. They attract something beyond what the slick PR or marketing campaign provides.

So, what happens if we allocate some of the marketing budget to go toward giving?

From the act of giving rises something that transcends us. The act of contributing results in revelation. And this revelation ensues only when it reverberates across those whom we want to arouse. And we are aroused when we become part of the happening totally. We cannot be satisfied with the narratives that are passed on to us. Those tales have to be lived in. in the end it is human nature to yearn for the satisfaction of making our own donation – to our kith and kin and organizations and society.

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 wonderful is the situation where every time someone buys an ice cream, a child somewhere in an underprivileged country gets a cup of milk?

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 supposing you are undergoing some training. How wonderful it would be if another eager student far away is also getting the necessary training as a corollary (believe it or not, the training does not cost the training institute more than 60 cents a day).

Or if a conference sponsors has arranged a speaker, part of whose income goes to help kids who has speech impediments due to deformities, wouldn’t that be a matter to feel satisfied? Just by attending the conference and paying for it, you are becoming part of a noble cause.

Consider whether you will be able to use transaction-based giving in your own exclusive way to go with your services or products to make your customers and other team-mates part of the saga of contributing. This is how you can do it.

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.

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.

Small to medium sized companies are now starting to take leadership in expanding this global giving movement through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a mechanism that has turned this transaction-based giving into something every one of us can be involved in.

Buy1GIVE1 is the heart of a most powerfully persuasive transaction-based giving globally, correlating business ventures of all sizes to any noble cause anywhere. It is weaving a universal society of business givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 links up businesses, their clients AND charity requirements in a most passionate and mutually satisfactory manner. The whole thing is completely automated.

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?

* One half of the world’s population -which is about three billion people-does not have a daily income of even two dollars.

* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name.

* Poverty and malnutrition robs the lives of 20 children every minute, 30,000 every day, and 210,000 children every week, as per UNICEF records.

* 85% of the world’s water resources are utilized by just 12% of its population. And of this, even 1% does 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.

Statistic From Global Issues

Buy1GIVE1 Businesses-check out these examples

* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)

* Learning to learning (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)

* Medical practice providing medical benefits (www.primanora.com)

* Telephone card helping in communication (www.ultimatecomms.com)

* Relaxation to healing (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)

* Coaching to train social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)

* And for full details, just log on to www.b1g1.com.

Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature’s eternal secret

So let’s begin again from where we had set off-financial instability and succeeding in having what we need. The requirements are in reality quite clear-cut. It is just a triumvirate starting with the letter C – correlation, cooperation 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 nature gives us a real clue to that.

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!

Failures are said to be stepping stones to success. In the same way we can turn setbacks into advantages. In reality we should be thankful for the current situation that is helping us to move ahead.

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.