Sunday, January 27, 2013

Why becoming a Social Entrepreneur is your ultimate success?


Wangari Maathai
Do you know that making a better life for other people is a serious business which pays you an everlasting profit in your life? You will ask me how but the truth is a hand that gives normally receives. This might sound shallow to you but making the world a better place for all to live is the purpose you were born for, that is why you normally feel good and proud when you help people on anything, you normally feel safe in front of people you have helped and also you get a lot of rewards when you do something good for people or anything to the environment where people and other creatures live.


Try to reflect on the Nobel prizes, what it takes for people to get it, think of all who won that award, do you know what Wangari Maathai did in her big project of green belt in Kenya? She planted thousands of trees to serve the environment and we shall never forget her. Do you know what Profesor Muhammad Yunus did with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh? His idea of microfinance spread almost all over the world and most of the developing countries applies and poor people get capital to start their small investments to raise their daily bread income. 

Being joyous because you have done something good for others is your ultimate success you need, being loved by other people is what you are struggling for every day, creating good impression to people is what you fight for almost every day but perhaps you are using a difficult way, serving other people in the world will give all these success at once you better choose to become a social entrepreneur.

What is this social entrepreneurship?

Still there isn’t any agreed definition of this new concept in the world however we almost share the understanding that is a way of doing business with a directly social mission from which its profit is not directed to anyone’s pocket. It is doing business with social focus and adding value to the community. This is like screwing business as usual like how Richard Branson of virgin Unite put it. Most of the business as usual seems not to care the environment and people’s health and life in general then social entrepreneurs are there to cover that gap.

Social entrepreneurs are people with passion to the society, they always think about other people’s life, they are almost selfless that’s why they devote their time and resources to change the world for others to enjoy. When the government never think of supplying electricity to the interior villages, social entrepreneurs will come up with a solution and supply a cheap electricity for all people to access, when the industries cause deforestation in Kenya Wangari Maathai as a social entrepreneur had to think a way to plant many trees to rescue the environment under her big project of Greenbelt.

In the free market economy  
  
We definitely need social entrepreneurs to rescue the world because in this kind of economy there is big feature of selfish spirit where everyone minds his/her life and not of others. A business man normally think of the profit he/ she is going to make out of his/her business regardless all the destruction made up by such business to people and environment. Most of today’s government leaders mind their personal enrichments instead of taking care of their voters and the environment they live. All these gaps are covered by social entrepreneurs.

You cannot separate free market economy or capitalism and social entrepreneurship that is why it wasn’t there in most dictatorial governments or states in 20th century. It was completely difficult to find it in the Eastern Europe, Russia and some of the African countries like Tanzania during the reign of socialism by that time. The fall of this ideology in the world and the dominance of capitalism and free market led to the rise of this concept of social entrepreneurship, even Bill Dryton the founder of Ashoka struggled a lot by the time he was imparting the idea of social entrepreneurship in India and Brazil where the dictatorial government felt so late.



It’s time for you to become a successful social entrepreneur

A social entrepreneur normally think big, he/she thinks to serve the community at large scale and sometimes a social entrepreneur thinks to serve the whole world because it is becoming connected more technologically and economically hence a single mistake done in Chine’s industry to pollute the environment affects the whole world up to South Africa and Latin America. Therefore a social entrepreneur like Bill Dryton with his Ashoka intends to serve the whole world by supporting social entrepreneurs who has brilliant ideas to serve the community anywhere in the world. Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh found a microfinance solution with his Grameen bank, an idea which is spread almost all over the world up to Tanzania. This is an example of how social entrepreneurs think big.

Look and think around your social setup, there is a lot of social problems which needs to be solved simply because the government and other stakeholders are not responsible. Look at the education system, see the health problems, a lot of vulnerable groups of people, look at that environmental degradation because of industries and other carelessness of people around; to a social entrepreneur all these are opportunities to undertake a business solution, you need to find a solution to those problems. 

You might directly and quickly think of starting an NGO so as you can ask for funds and give charity to vulnerable groups and think you are doing social entrepreneurship; that is not a social entrepreneurship I am talking about, think of this social enterprise in Tanzania by its name Wonder Workshop. The idea is to support disabled people to stop begging along the roads in Dar es Salaam city instead working to make their own income and support their families. 

A social entrepreneur gathered some of these people and started a workshop where they create a lot of ornaments using recycled materials and an organization find a market to sell them, the money they get are offered to them as a salaries in a monthly basis. Can you recognize how this social entrepreneur has solved a problem in a sustainable way? He first of all gave employment to disabled who were previously beggars and they are now risen up their esteem to feel like other normal people but secondly he is cleaning the city because many dirty materials are going to be dumped to the workshop for reuse. 

What makes one a social entrepreneur

I found that most of the emerging social entrepreneurs became so because of their backgrounds. If you listen to Wangari Maathai is because she was born in a village where they depended much on the trees to get natural water, natural air and trees to build their houses etc. and when she found this nature is distracted by industrial developments, it pained her, she was not ready to continue witnessing that destruction, she had to start a Greenbelt movement to plant trees. 

Professor Muhammad Yunus was coming originally in Bangladesh around the village he supported women with his 27$ as loans with trust to start their small business. It is due to the fact that he knew the situation since before and may be it was his dream to find a way to reduce poverty to women and the community in general.
There are other many social entrepreneurs who start becoming so due to the inspiration they get from other social entrepreneurs like Wangari Maathai and Muhammad Yunus however others are becoming sorry with big social problems which are occurring in the community and they decide to find a way to solve them. 

Not only these factors but others decide to be social entrepreneurs by simply envisioning and seeing the end in their mind hence create some new innovative initiatives in the community or the world at large which helps to make it a better place for all of us to live.

It is joyous and great feeling to do something big and valuable in your community or world before you die and that is the only success you need as you are alive. We remember, respect and honor all who did something good for others not those who killed others for their personal gain. We protect and defend only those who cared for others and are the one who live peacefully in the world. Decide to become a social entrepreneur today by adding value to your community and that will be your ultimate success you want before you pass away.

Good luck!

By Erick Chrispin  





Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Living happy life in your tough times


LIVING HAPPY LIFE IN YOUR TOUGH TIMES 

 
As human beings we were created to be happy, our nature is joy, did you know that before? This means that being sad or losing your happiness is going against your creation, is like going against your nature and the way you are. To prove this, you will agree with me that life has been Waw! When you felt happy and it made you feel dying or leaving the world as you became sad, this is due to the fact that you were created to be happy, and being happy in your life is the ultimate success you need. Will you count yourself successful if you have all the money in the world but you are not happy? Having all you want in your life but not happy? No! The truth is a happy person without money or wealth is successful than a sad person will all the money because being happy is how we were created to be as human beings.


A source of your guilt 

Every manmade things you see in the world were made out of nothing through production. If you want something you normally start by imagining it in your mind and then do something to realize it. This is how we were created as human beings, we normally visualize what we want and set some strategies on the way to acquire it. Whenever you stop finding what you planned to get is when your guilt start growing in you, this means that your GUILT is a product of not implementing what you have planned in your mind, not producing, not being responsible and not working on your dreams and on the way round this is a fountain of losing your happiness which is your ultimate success.

Keep on producing everyday

As long as you normally feel happy as you realize something out of your work then it is my advice to keep on producing something concrete everyday so that you can be happy every day.

This is our big setback to happiness

We tend not to value small things we realize out of our work every day, we think we need to make big profit or produce much to the level of our big dreams so as we can be happy, this is very wrong, remember a big profit you are dreaming about is built up by small profits you generate every day and after sometimes they become as big as you dream. And as long as success is not an overnight process then waiting an unknown length of period to become happy is like hurting yourself, we need to understand that our journey to our dreams is life by itself and we need to be happy as we live, we need to be happy in the process of realizing our dreams, don’t wait until you acquire it as whole because you still do know when will be the end. Learn to enjoy within a process of achieving your goals and dreams.

Every day congratulate yourself for what you have successfully done.

Remember you are now building a big house, succeeding to lay down two breaks in a day it mean something great, still you have built your house to a big level, laying another two breaks tomorrow then four breaks will be already made and that is great progress, you definitely need to be very happy for a great job you have done don’t wait until the house is finished, remember your happiness today motivates you to keep on producing in the next days. If you won’t value a small work you have done today then you will never be inspired to continue working tomorrow. Regardless a lot of toughness in producing and realizing your dreams you need to enjoy and become happy on how you have managed to overcome a small part of such challenges, that is the only success you need in your life. Thank God for enabling you do something to build your house however it looks small but it is big in the sense that it has reduced a work which could be if nothing was done.

Challenges approves your competence 

There is no any smooth way to achieving your goal and dream, there must be some challenges which is the reality of your dream before it is cultivated. You can visualize a house or anything you want in your life but remember it is not there in a real world so already it is a challenge, for you to realize it you need to overcome this challenge which is materializing a house. Escaping the toughness to build this house it means it will never be realized therefore you need to start working through all the setbacks and toughness knowing that you are in its right way and there is no way you can escape that hardship however the end result of all those toughness will be to realize a house in a real world. If this is how things are then there is no need not to enjoy the process of materializing your dream because that is the only way you have to pass through. Remember a small activity you have done today is so valuable in realizing your dream, thank God for that and be happy and ready to continue for the next step tomorrow.

But if…

You will stop producing to the maximum then you will never be happy in your life and happiness is your ultimate success because even those who think success is different things like money, cars etc.  At least at the end of the day we all agree that those things give us happiness which is our ultimate goal.

Good luck! 

By Erick Chrispin

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Identifying Who You Are.



WALKING FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT 

 POWERFUL is you when you discover and know WHO YOU ARE. Living without knowing your SELF or in another language; not knowing who you are beyond what you see from your outer part i.e. your body, your normal everyday thinking and feeling is like living in darkness. This means that whenever you will understand WHO YOU ARE, i.e.  Beyond what you know about yourself now, is when you will start living in LIGHT and that is the TRUTH about you, it will set you free and you will independently live YOU, not programs of other people in your life.

You are your programs 

When a child is born she/he is not aware of anything in the world, his/her ego is none of the world’s information in mind to start controlling her/him to live according to those information, that is why when she/he wants to start standing up and walking never give up until he/she makes it. This is due to the fact that there is no any negative voice in this child which could be telling him/her that, “stop trying to standup because you will probably fall down and get injured”, what a baby know by the time being is just to stand up and start walking.

When a baby grows up and start sensing is when she/he start heading to a darkness. 

He/she start doing things or behaving according to what parents, siblings and other people around teach him/her, for instance they may teach him/ her to fear dogs or snakes that they are bad animals and automatically this child will start fearing them however she/he sees other people live friendly with these animals at their homes but simply because this child is programed that way then she/ he will be living her/his parents programs in her/his entire life.

Your destructive ego is growing every day.

As every day you are fed with a lot of different information, those information nourishes your ego (inflated opinion of yourself) which in turn start controlling your life in general, the grown ego in you is what makes you feel guilt when you behave not according to it. For instance if your parents or the society you are coming from taught you that it is not acceptable to do sex before marriage then when you do that your ego will speak to you that you have sinned (gone against) and that will be a source of your guilt feeling which will kill your soul and deteriorate your body.

Living in your programs undermines your success,

Living according to the programs of your fore fathers, parents, teachers, religious leaders and so forth is totally not living YOU. What these people do in your life is just planting their values which in turn you are forced to believe them and start living accordingly. I do not mean you should stop listening to your parents directions, I know that they have good morals to share with you so that they can help to nicely shape your life because they have experience, but what I am doing is to make you aware that most of the time you are not relaxed and not enjoying what you do or live by, because it was not you who decided to live the way you live or join a school you are now, undertaking a carrier you are now etc. most of the time you feel guilt when you remember that what you do doesn’t satisfy you because you feel like it is not coming from within you, and when you think of going to your own way, your EGO forces you to remain there because by leaving you will be violating the social values.

Imagine…

At school you were taught that failing in examinations and any undertakings is life failure, stupidity, poor IQ, poor mindset etc., and to emphasize on this you were beaten severely immediately as you failed, automatically you will never accept taking risk which will make you fail. This means that it will be difficult for you to do new things which is more risk but ends up with great success in your life, fear will be your life controller, you will not be ready to start new ventures like business simply because you are not ready to fail. Do you see this program of your teacher in your life? This is darkness. The light is that each success is found in failure and unless there is no failure then you can’t know what to do to improve the situation. Knowing this truth will make you comfortable to undertake anything with risk as long as you envision and know its successful end.

Discovering your personal values

Every human being is living according to what he/she knows and within what you know there are the values which are 100% correlating with your personality which makes you unique. And this personality of yours is what contradicts with ego as it forces you do according to its programs. Therefore there are your strong personal values which are normally competing with other planted social values which ego is their driver in you. Discovering and living your personal values is like walking from darkness to light and those personal values is what will mean YOU or they are going to tell WHO YOU ARE.

Do this to discover WHO YOU ARE…

Pick and write on a piece of paper all people who are your role models or people you like most and feel like you could be like them. They might be dead or some alive, others might be characters in novels or books you have red or movies you watched, for instance one of my role mode is MOSES from the bible.

After you have listed them all, start writing in front of each one the good adjectives you like from them for instance it might be intelligence or wise etc. don’t write wisdom instead write wise which is an adjective depicts directly the goodness of such habit of your role model. You can list more than one habit/ adjective to a single role model.

After you finish listing all of them, have a look to what you have written, you will discover that those are what makes you like those role models, and the truth is that you like those behaviors because they truly collide with your personal values that means all what you have written are your personal values and those mean you, that is TRUE YOU. Another person probably couldn’t see the same things you have detected from these role models, they could see different things according their personalities, likely to you, have detected all those because that is you.

Therefore you most of the time feel guilt because you normally violate the above personal values of you, let say you have discovered a FAITHFUL habit from your role model that means you are naturally faithful then when you become unfaithful because of some social circumstances you will definitely feel guilt at the end of the day. You are not living YOU.

After discovering who you are…

Now take another paper and just write OTHER values which you think you have, apart from what you have discovered from your role models. They might be sounding good for instance efficiency, effectiveness etc., just write them all, what you are going to discover after listing all of them is that these are the most embarrassing values which makes you not relaxing most of the time. You find yourself not relating to them when you try to undertake, you do not feel comfortable with them. just know that it is not a problem but the fact is by forcing to be efficient while it is not your personal core value is like denying yourself, the truth is just by well following your core personal values efficiency will automatically reveal out itself in your life.  

Therefore…

Living in light is living your core personal values and that is a true you and by doing so you will be escaping living programs of others in your life and this is the only fountain of your successful life. A successful life is when you become happy of your living because you do positives that makes you real happy and joyful, so you will never be happy by living not according to you but according to other people.

You will look stupid at the beginning

The fact is when you start living your own core values, your own positive decisions in life other people and the society will define you as a stupid person because you do not seem normal but the truth is; successful people are normally stupid at the beginning, what they do is not giving up on their decision until they succeed and other people understand what they do hence follow them. And this is the LIGHT I am talking about.
It is possible I wish you the best as you are starting to walk from darkness to light today.

Thanks to Vincent M. Roazzi of the spirituality of success for teaching me to teach you today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

By Erick Chrispin