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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.

However, each and every person ISN’T doing so. There are sections of the society which prosper, come what may. Those, who feel surprised about this odd equation, can find the clue for it in a most obvious place where they might have missed it. It might be worthwhile to analyse it 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-providers’

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

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!

But what if we turned our ‘getting’ into giving?

Most of you are aware that the act of providing gives a sense of fulfillment. This ensues from gratefulness and not from panic or avarice. A person can go on providing more and receive more and know full satisfaction in the voyage of life.

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!

Inspiring 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.”

What he’s actually saying is that when a company links its business to giving in some way, that company and its products become more attractive to customers. It takes us way, way above what’s been called ‘the sea of sameness’.

Creative Capitalism is concerned about reaching higher than what we might reconcile for to arrive at where we hoped to arrive. When we can make the most of our design and inspiration in a way that assists and fosters the larger community of nations and continents, we are preventing the wastage of supplies, endeavours and capacities to succeed. Then we are crafting the most authentic success for ourselves and for the financial stability of the countries across the world.

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.

Business ventures and people who ‘donate’ become popular. The zeal and sincerity that prods them to act is recognized by the people with whom they interact. This response is on top of what is spun by way of the company’s public relation efforts.

What is likely to be the upshot if some of the capital meant for marketing is apportioned for contributions?

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

Imagine if every time you subscribed to a magazine you love, a tree got planted automatically just because you bought the magazine? Or every time you dine out, you fed a child in need? Automatically again.

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 real win-win economy

Business ventures, on a global basis, have already internalized the efficacy of this transaction-based giving. A case in point is TESCO, one of the foremost supermarket chains of UK. The company’s programme ensures that a Kenyan child gets a school uniform when someone buys a pair of school trousers from them.

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 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.

Do you know?

* 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.

* According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. That is about 210,000 children each week, or 20 children every minute.

* 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.

* One billion people lack access to basic health care.

* 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 treatment helping in medical aid (www.primanora.com)

* Phone card to communication (www.ultimatecomms.com)

* Relaxation to healing (www.meditate.com.au)

* Shedding pounds to providing food for children (www.bodychain.com)

* Blind installation to lighting up schools (www.blindscouture.com.au)

* Socks for comfort to feet free of frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com)

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

* And to get a complete picture, just go to www.b1g1.com.

Finding what we are looking for-Nature gives us the clue

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 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!

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 chooses to donate now itself, in spite of the financial crisis, he will feel more contended. And with this contentment he will find a hope that is rekindled anew, which will ring a bell on how the ebb and flow of things can change. Today’s charity might be that which will reverse the flow.

Find out more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing. Also published at Turning Fiasco Into Benefit.

categories: crisis,challenges,personal development,giving,charity,cause marketing,society,motivation,giving,positive outlook,positive thinking