Let’s face it, these are interesting times that we are living in. In the month of January alone, we saw more turmoil politically, ecological disasters, economic fallout, a death of a sporting great and the coronavirus.
I don’t want to be instilling fear in anyone or to worry you, in fact I want to do the opposite. In these times of challenges, it is time to embrace them. There is a Chinese saying that with challenge comes opportunity.
So, instead of focusing on the challenges, think of the solutions you can bring to the world. If we choose to embrace the challenges and then turn towards solutions where we work collectively to solve them, good things can happen.
One of my goals is to highlight business owners who are making a difference in the community, the city, country and the world we love and live in.
Where I live, there is a business owner named Jody Steinhauer. Here is a woman who owns a company called the Bargains Group, in Toronto, Canada.
The Bargains Group started off in fashion, then morphed into a promotional products company, calling on big businesses to supply them with clothing and printed items to get their message out.
Believe it or not, the average person can recall the logo and company featured on their coffee mug better than they can a $5.2-million-dollar commercial that aired on the Super Bowl last month.
Back to Jody. She has morphed her company into a company that gives back. Her team and staff prepare winter survival kits for the homeless. Her company provides products to non-profit agencies to help them serve those in the community who may be facing social/economic challenges.
Jody’s life and business model is “Give Back Where You Live”. Not only is she involved in the “Winter Survival” project, but also “Project Water” as well. She encourages the community to volunteer their time, money and in distributing these Winter Warm Up kits to the City’s homeless and to those who may not be homeless but require a helping hand. (Think women in shelters).
Jody runs this program in Toronto and Vancouver. She has won numerous awards, speaks and teaches other small business owners and guess what? Her company has revenues in the millions.
To me this is leadership.
I haven’t even scratched the surface in describing the work Jody and her team at the Bargain’s Group does. Here is a link to learn more about Jody if you want a little inspiration to change. https://jodysteinhauer.com
In my work teaching entrepreneurs, I was involved with a non-profit organization, that runs a “Sewing Program” to women at risk. I was brought into teach them how to start a business over a 5-week span, each and every Friday. This happened in late October and till the end of November.
It was fabulous work! I love teaching the material but really loved the participants. One Friday, a local entrepreneur came in to distribute beautiful handbags filled with goodies for each of the women participants.
This is another not-for-profit initiative that gets business owners rallying around to uplift the spirits and fashion look of women who are going through change and challenge. The project is called “Fill a Purse Project”. Google it to learn more. There are several other similar initiatives that help women “Sisters” in need…but this is what is demanded of us now.
As we get more into this new decade, we can wonder what is happening, wait around as things happen or we can act.
We can be a part of the change we want to see here on the planet. You see, in case nobody told you, it is not up to our political leaders or big businesses to bring forth change, peace and goodness…it is up to us. Yes, you and I in our businesses, in our community.
We need to lead now. Because, truthfully it is my sense and belief that the leaders we have in our world are not doing so hot.
There is a book and subsequent Ted Talks by author, speaker and thought leader, Nancy Koehn (no relation)… called Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times. In it Harvard Historian Koehn talks about 5 leaders and how they handled change and crisis. She explores the lives of explorer Ernest Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and environmental crusader Rachel Carson.
In the brief description about the book on the Amazon website, it states, “As we follow each leader’s against-all-odds journey, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made. In a book dense with epiphanies, the most galvanizing one may be that the power and courage to lead resides in each of us.”
In the reviews section about the book, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says this about Nancy’s book, “As important and inspiring as it is urgent”.
I feel that is where we are at today.
We need to summon up the courage to lead, to make change and bring forth the kind of world we want.
We will have more tests like we have seen in January and February, where we can stand by and be paralyzed, or we can respond and act.
If you are going to act, build support in place. Have a coach, mentor, a mastermind team to help you get there.
Build your tribe or audience.
Don’t let power or the want of it take you away from serving and doing good…Power, leadership can change people, keep your eye on your goal.
Take baby steps. When someone said Rome wasn’t built in a day, that was right! It wasn’t. I just wonder if the same person that said that also said, “All roads lead to Rome”. If it was the same person, they’d be an excellent copywriter on Madison Avenue in today’s times.
Please make it a good month; do your best not to get stopped by your fear and act, as author, speaker Mel Robbins writes in her book The 5 Second Rule. When you have an idea to act, count down 5-4-3-2-1 and do it; take action. Because, if you wait, the fear of shame, embarrassment and looking like a fool will kick in and you won’t do anything. You will be safe.
Now is not the time to be safe. It is the time for positive action.
