My view of the charity world is that compared with business, there is too much talk, way too many meetings and expert panels and blue-ribbon commissions, and not enough action. Or as an Australian friend of mine once opined: "Sometimes you just have to have a go and get on with it, mate!".
The strength of our digital community is derived by the relationships we build over time by connecting, sharing and engaging our successes as well as our failures. This creates extraordinary opportunities because we are human and carry a unique trait called empathy that naturally wants to add value and help others
Close your eyes, imagine yourself in the world of your dreams, imagine everything you ever wanted, live that moment, get the feel of it. Once you've lived that moment in your mind fully, open your eyes and get started with work, work as hard as possible, do all that it takes to live that moment in real. Just do it, it's possible.
Without question, the balance of power on the planet today lies in the hands of business. Corporations rival governments in wealth, influence, and power. Indeed, business all too often pulls the strings of government. Competing institutions-religion, the press, even the military-play subordinate roles in much of the world today. If a values-driven approach to business can begin to redirect this vast power toward more constructive ends than the simple accumulation of wealth, the human race and Planet Earth will have a fighting chance.
One of the newest figures to emerge on the world stage in recent years is the social entrepreneur. This is usually someone who burns with desire to make a positive social impact on the world, but believes that the best way of doing it is, as the saying goes, not by giving poor people a fish and feeding them for a day, but by teaching them to fish, in hopes of feeding them for a lifetime. I have come to know several social entrepreneurs in recent years, and most combine a business school brain with a social worker's heart. The triple convergence and the flattening of the world have been a godsend for them. Those who get it and are adapting to it have begun launching some very innovative projects.
TZEDAKAH is a Hebrew word commonly translated as “charity.” One Jewish leader described tzedakah as having eight levels of charitable giving. The eighth and highest level of giving is described like this:“The highest form of charity is to help sustain a person before they become impoverished by offering a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves in business so as to make it unnecessary for them to become dependent on others.”Serve others in a way that helps them become self-reliant (or interdependent) and watch miracles happen for both you and them.