Tag Archives: ponder

Mar 17 2012
6 Comments
Forum, Reflection, Social Entrepreneurship, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #7 – The Nature of Ambition: How Serious Should We Take Ourselves?

Weekly Ponder #7

The Nature of Ambition: How Serious Should We Take Ourselves?

Last week, we concluded some thoughts on the nature of ego and the way it affects different individuals’ approach to social entrepreneurship. While we tend to speak of ego usually negatively, I pointed out that at best, it serves as a basic motivating force for us to spring to action – even if some may not like the inherent “selfish” motivation.

Today, my thoughts have been circling around this idea of motivation and its big brother – ambition. Specifically, I have been wondering about how we can reconcile the notion of ambition, which deals by definition with the future, with the notion of being at peace and content with the present. Think about all the Buddhist teachings that encourage us to reject attachment, desire and expectations, in order to diminish or avoid suffering.

I suspect that there is a good number of people in the do-good and social entrepreneurship space today that would identify with Buddhist teachings (or perhaps, not?). If so, would it be ignorant of me to think that if you are a social entrepreneur or consider yourself active in this “social” sector, you probably have a considerable amount of ambition?

And if that is the case, do you have some advice for the Good Generation on how to balance forward-looking “ambition” with present-focused Buddhism? Can you have both? Answering this question may be a non-trivial component of the quest for happiness for many folks out there in the field, fighting the good battle.

What’s further at stake seems to be this: at a time when we keep saying that we need more and more people to engage, to strive, to change the world, we are implicitly saying that we need more people to follow the call of their ambition to make their dreams a reality. Where, then, does this leave us?

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 27 2012
Leave a comment
Career, Forum, NGOs, Social Enterprise, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #6 – Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Weekly Ponder #6

Money Talks: Should Doing Good have more Impact on Your Wallets?

Raise your hands if you have heard the following phrase: “Doing Good While Doing Well.” Now raise your hands if you did not know that this refers to companies and investors. Yes, the money goes to them. Not to you. That is, not to most of you, who are likely neither a company nor have the money to play impact investor. If you care about such things as “doing well” (ah heck, let’s call it what it is: money), my ponder of the week may resonate.

Personally, and frankly, I cannot imagine why we would care about how much “good profits” those responsible/sustainable corporations make or why we would care that the (already wealthy) impact investors get a little extra cash in the bank, without first talking about making “good living” ourselves. Perhaps that explains my aversion to a phrase which smells like good PR but lacks personal significance that I can relate to by any measure.

A further thought. To review a perennial bone that I love to unearth occasionally (see previous post where I mentioned the issue of compensation), I continually try to tell myself that the following is not true: that the vast majority of “do-good” jobs that DIRECTLY affect the (social/environmental) bottom line, e.g., working for social enterprises and NGOs, do not seem to pay so well. We’re not even comparing to traditional for-profit jobs here. We just have to compare that to those do-good jobs that exist more to ENABLE other change-makers, e.g., foundations, institutions like World Bank, ADB, and consultancies. If you didn’t know, allow me to suggest this carefully: the latter make (a lot) more money than the former! Today’s question is not why there is a difference and whether that is appropriate or fair, or exactly what levels of positions we are talking about here (although both may be addressed by a future post). Today’s question may be simply about why do-good pay is (relatively) low and unattractive period – and whether this is okay.

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 17 2012
2 Comments
Forum, Social Enterprise, Social Entrepreneurship, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #5 – Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Weekly Ponder #5

Entrepreneurship vs. Replicaneurship: Why is Reinventing the Wheel so Popular among Changemakers?

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: why do so many social enterprises and NGOs start from scratch instead of replicating a previous model? By extension, does ego and the drive to be unique have anything significant to do with it? Or is it just operational challenges, resistant stakeholders (like governments) and the nature of funding that prevents most social enterprises from going “McDonalds” with their model? More profoundly, in a world where we keep touting the virtues of collaboration and doing things “together” why does it seem that the predominant social change model presupposes individual organizations growing “big and strong” rather than spreading their idea and business model seeds out “far and wide”? So instead of McDonalds, why is it less common to have more blatant “me too” brands like Burger King’s, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Quicks and Lotterias in the world of social enterprises, if the world is crying out for more (good) burgers?

I don’t know if this term has been coined somewhere else, so pardon me for not citing credit, but perhaps we want to consider the possibility of “replicaneurship” as another viable career option to us, rather than classical “entrepreneurship”. Immediately I am thinking of the role of competition vs. cooperation and that its premises seem to potentially conflict with the basic dual purposes of social enterprises to be somewhat self sustaining (like turning a profit) while pursuing social mission that should reach as far as possible. Well, what do you do when two social enterprises work next door to each other with very similar goals? Do they shake hands and live happily together? Do they get married (merge)? Or do they fight it out with a smile for the same world of donors and investors and let the “fitter” survive? Or do they fight and don’t smile?

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Feb 05 2012
Leave a comment
Forum, Sustainability, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #4 – Reaching Peak Stuff: Is Growth Overrated?

Weekly Ponder #4

Reaching Peak Stuff: Is Growth Overrated?


In a previous post, I questioned the real meaning behind careers in CSR and sustainability by asking if they were indeed jobs where people actively promote or “do good”, or whether they were not just jobs where people could pride themselves for “doing less bad.” Lately, especially after reading an interesting article on Fast Magazine’s co.exist blog about whether we might have reached “peak stuff” (analogy to the fear of reaching “peak oil” or point of declining supplies), I’ve been starting to question more some of the fundamental assumptions that today’s world economy is based on. One in particular stood out, and it applies particularly to developed countries.

I am talking about the assumption that our economy’s health depends on companies producing goods and that they keep doing that until the end of time. It’s called “growth” for economics laymen. Question is, what happens if all companies keep growing?

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 29 2012
Leave a comment
Forum, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #3 – Ultimate Do-Good Goals: How Does Nirvana Look to You?

Weekly Ponder #3

Ultimate Do-Good Goals: How Does Nirvana Look to You?


Perhaps I am mistaken, but before this whole doing good business became an actual career option, it seems that used to be easier to define what we meant by the actual word “career,” “success” and how we envisioned our goals in that regard. One could think about the idea of moving up the corporate ladder and become an executive, or ideally, the big boss herself. One could think about the goal of making a boat-load of money, then doing whatever one felt like. For this latter piece, one could easily predict once monetary progress from position to position up the ladder. One could also think about the dream of producing an iconic product that would be used everywhere in the world, and to receive credit for this.

But what now, if you are part of the Good Generation of people talking all day and night about doing cool things for people and planet? Damn you and your ideals and gibberish about purpose! Is it that easy for you to articulate what your goal is? What is it you want in the end?

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 21 2012
Leave a comment
Forum, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #2 – In Search for a Cause: Do you need one or can you be a “generalist”?

Weekly Ponder #2

In Search for a Cause: Do you need one or can you remain “generally” passionate?

Whenever we see profiles of today’s changemakers, we tend to see two flavors: (1) those that champion one specific cause and (2) those that prefer the “general idea” of doing good, which can lead them to serve several causes or “issue areas”, e.g., healthcare, education, poverty, etc. Thus, as more and more young people find inspiration and motivation from their peers and idols around the world to dedicate themselves to a career of doing good, many ask themselves what their personal story will be.

It is actually very easy to follow the story of people being magnetically drawn to a particular issue, say, AIDS or illiteracy, as a matter of personal background or unique experiences. We read about it every day. Joe goes on vacation in Africa, sees some poor people, is moved, ends up staying 5 years living with the locals, eventually returns home, tells a story, raises money, starts some company, does good, gets contacted by NY Times, does interview – BAM, fame, fun, the rest is history. But what about the others? What about the rest of us without an apparent cause?

Continue reading →

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jan 10 2012
Leave a comment
Forum, Weekly Ponder

Weekly Ponder #1 – Defining our Do-Good Boundaries: Will my effort ever be enough?

Weekly Ponder #1

Will my effort ever be enough?

You realized the world has plenty of problems. You decided that you care enough to stop merely talking, complaining or thinking about it. You now want to do something about it.

No matter what you decide to do, you quietly wonder if what you do is enough. How do you even define “enough”? What is enough for you? What is enough to solve a problem? If, in fact, will your involvement ever be enough to make a notable dent into the problem you are trying to solve, e.g., hunger, health, education, rights, global warming?

As discussed in previous posts, you can think about if it is more important that you are part of some organization that has a lot of impact (scale of impact) or whether you simply want to more directly feel the impact you are having – and that it is enough for you to be content with your contribution.

Each of us has different answers to this question. Our answers seem to have, however, some common criteria:

  • Commitment – is after-work, part-time, or full-time only going to help you do what you wish to do? Is volunteering good enough or do you feel you need to do more?
  • Organization – is joining the government, an NGO, social enterprise, corporation, private firm, or association most meaningful to you, if it plays any role at all in your consideration?
  • Role – what specifically do you want do? Manage people? Engineer/design something? Plan something? Get your hands dirty? Traditional vs. CSR/sustainability title necessary? Do you need credit officially for your role? How much?
  • Constraints – what is holding you back? Family obligations? Money? Pride? Health?
  • Attitude – are you starting off highly optimistic about your individual contribution and the potential for impact you could have with the time you were given, or do you believe whatever you do is a “drop in the bucket” anyway so you might as well do what matters to you most while you can?

How do you rationalize this question before you “point, aim, shoot” upon your career – or before you make a change in whatever you are doing today so tomorrow matters more to you? What are your doubts, or your convictions, that what you do or plan on doing is the right thing for you?

(Note: use the “Leave a Reply” box below please to respond to this Weekly Ponder. If you have responses to others, please direct it to their specific entries. Although I call this “Weekly”, please continue to add to this when you see fit. I prefer conversations stay alive as long as people find them appealing and personally relevant.)

Tagged , , , , , ,
Jan 10 2012
Leave a comment
Announcements, Forum, Weekly Ponder

Announcement – Introducing the Weekly Ponder

Dear Good Generation,

To start adding some new things up besides my typical long-style posts, I wanted to start a weekly habit of throwing out a question that usually reflects some of the underlying issues found regularly in our blog posts, and hope that some of you will have the courage to share your unique, personal views with the community here.

The purpose behind this is that, in my experience, dealing with tough questions inside our heads keeps us in loops and eventually never moves us forward in affirming our values and let them guide our decisions consistently. Therefore, by articulating our thoughts on paper (or screen, that is), without the pressure of having to arrive at “The” answer, helps us air our concerns, receive reactions and frees us to take in new ideas. Hopefully this will then get us to the next incremental step on our quest to “figure things out” for ourselves.

That said, everything said (respectfully) is fair in the Weekly Ponder: comments, reactions, challenges, (attempted) answers, more questions, or response to others, including to me of course. Short responses are just as appreciated as longer ones.

Note: Although I call this “Weekly”, please continue to add to this when you see fit. I prefer conversations stay alive as long as people find them appealing and personally relevant.

Lastly, feel free to send to me your suggestions for YOUR weekly ponder question that may be broadly helpful for others as well to go through on this blog.

Looking forward to hearing from you, wherever you are.

Sincerely,

Thien

Tagged , , , ,