Journal of the Wantrapreneur : Ask and be told

Just ask. Seems like a simple suggestion, but going back a few months, I'd have no clue just how much power there was in asking. Early January i set out on a quest to open up a BioHacker space in Melbourne, now in May, 4 months later, I am President of an organization, I have $30,000 worth of equipment from a University I still owe $10,000 to for a partial education, and am about to open the lab up in my garage. All of this was obtained for under $50, the rest was given to me because I asked. It's amazing the stories we spin ourselves to justify us not doing something we're not comfortable with doing. We could spend countless hours holding off on doing something that may in itself take only a minute.

Step 1

I asked the Internet, who around Melbourne would be interested in starting up a BioHack space. The response was pretty good, and so we created a Facebook page to keep everyone up to date and act as a medium for communications during this project. Soon after this the task at hand of what needed to get done was beyond me so I decided to look for help. I asked who wanted to form an organization, next thing we knew, we had an organization.

Step 2

I asked existing contacts in my science network as well as seeking out other new contacts for old lab equipment. Sure enough, labs in Australia are constantly upgrading, resulting in many thousands of dollars worth of unused equipment just sitting around. Much of this goes straight in the bin! So when these laboratories heard there was a worthwhile cause they could off load this gear to, they were happy to help. The acquisition of this gear was a huge milestone and, a big shout out to Deakin University and my old Demonstrator/friend Wesy for helping out.

Step 3

As things were progressing, we needed to start focusing the power of our board towards the tasks that would allow for progress. What we found out was that in order for us to go to the next level we would need to change from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee. Not knowing how to go forward we decided to ask for some legal advice. What we got was free pro-bono help. Some people really identified with the idea, so much they were willing to wave their normal fees until we could pay. When it comes to the legal side of things, it's very important to get everything down pat to reduce liability and risk to the members. Unfortunately the fees for going from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee are quite expensive. It would have cost me $2,000 roughly to pay for an accountant to find a lawyer to have this done. Then I asked if anyone would be willing to do it pro-bono and the answer was yes, this halved the cost to $1,000! 

The point I'm trying to make is just ask! you never know what you're going to get until you ask, and until then you can only speculate! Ask everyone, tell everyone, speak to everyone! If you come across a stone, turn it over and see whats underneath, you'll never guess, so don't.

Journal of the Wantrapreneur : the pain compass

Going through life, each of us forms our own unique relationship with pain. Whether it is physical, emotional or mental pain, it is rare to hear of someone who has never been hurt. Nor would I trust such a person. Pain tells us we are out of our comfort zone, it signals that something is happening beyond our expected norm. When considering our day to day lives, we often feel discomfort when our expectations aren’t met. These expectations could be long standing paradigms that we believe in and have had challenged, or they could be expectations made from recently acquired information. Generally, when things don’t go according to plan, we feel a little tightness in our chest, some discomfort, some pain. This may vary greatly from person to person. Some people don’t deal with pain very well, others were born from it.

While pain is a very unique feeling, however, societies tend to under harness the potential power of this feeling and instead teach that pain is something to be avoided. I would argue the contrary. Pain is unique and powerful emotion to an individual in the context of his or her life, which instead of being completely steered away from, should be recognize and accepted for what it is. Pain is our emotional response to a stimulus. When thinking about pain or discomfort in this manner, it can actually be used as our own compass to explore our boundaries. Where do our limits lie?

It can be used as a diagnostic tool for not only ourselves but the journeys and projects we embark on throughout life. Okay so this company project doesn’t seem to be doing well, why is that? Why am I suddenly feeling this way when this person brings up ”blank”? Something is happening, it’s not going as I expected and I’m having an emotional reaction. Now that I am aware of my actual boundaries, and where my limits are, where do I go from here? What changes do I need to make to better handle this situation in the future?

Of course actually deploying this style of self-awareness during the live feeling of pain is no simple task, it takes a conscious degree of mindfulness. So practice is key, as practice makes perfect. Actually practice doesn't make perfect, it makes it habits, and habits take very little energy to do. So the more we practice being mindful in life, the sooner we can discover our own limitations, where they come from, if they can be pushed, without even thinking about it.

 As an entrepreneur, it is imperative that we realise when we are out of our depth, and that when we are, we decide that staying the course is what we need to do or to alter it. It’s when we ignore what our bodies are telling us that we begin to suffer. It’s when we continue to act incongruently to who we actually are, that we continue to suffer. So don’t ignore the pain, embrace it, listen to it, accept it, and make the needed changes for you to grown in all areas of your life.

There is a very important lesson that I must follow up with and that is,

We are not our thoughts or our feelings. 

When we identify with a thought or an emotion, especially a negative one, we run the risk of becoming consumed in a world of hurt. In addition, all emotions stem from thoughts. Every feeling you've felt, was sourced from a thought. By policing our thoughts we can become better masters of our house. Awareness is the answer, by observing your thoughts and feelings instead of letting them run your life, we begin to separate the feelings and thoughts based on assumptions from our true selves. Most of our negative thoughts and emotions stem from not knowing. If you don't know, ask, do not base your actions, risk your mental health, or happiness on uninformed assumptions. If you're afraid to ask, maybe that is your pain compass signalling you have some work to do.

Journal of the Wantrapreneur : Falling stars

Suddenly it happens, after overcoming obstacle after obstacle, we come falling down and hit the dirt to taste reality. Achieving our goal won't be as easy as we thought. As the dawn of reality sets in, it's easy to see why many projects seem too daunting and are left unfinished. The passion, drive, and overall enthusiasm gives way to stress, fear and sometimes depression. "Why won't this just work?!" we ask ourselves, as the world seems set on keeping us down with each added task to our list of growing to do's.

What we don't realise is that this is part of the process, and that these obstacles aren't what they seem to be, road blocks. They are in fact clear markers for navigating to what we have set out to accomplish. More like sign posts or foot holds. Looking at every journey we embark on, A-Z, we can be overwhelmed by the sheer distance we need to cover to get to our destination. What if we just look at A-B and forget the rest, what about B-C? It's all about framing and perspective, so make it work for you not against you, which is our natural tendency. Here is another question, did you ever think you could just hope straight from A directly to Z? I hope not, we need to accept that there is always going to be ground to cover to get us from where we are now to where we want to be. So be thankful if you are facing new challenges, these serve as street lamps on what would have been a very dark and arduous journey.

"Nothing worthwhile ever happens quickly and easily. You achieve only as you are determined to achieve… and as you keep at it until you have achieved"

-Robert H. Lauer

So now if we think about the difficulty of the task, and the time it will take to achieve it as a sign that what we are trying to accomplish is in fact worthwhile, how do we feel? I'm pretty excited.

Enter the 4 P's of entrepreneurship Patience, Persistence, Perseverance and Passion.

We need patience because MOST things don't happen overnight like all of the success stories in the media would have us believe. There needs to be a willingness to accept when we mess up, and to accept every added challenge we are given. Look at it more like "don't put your foot here" and "this is a possible place to put your foot" respectively. Need I remind you how many light bulbs Edison designed before getting it right?

We need persistence and perseverance because we often won't get it right the first time. Persistence and Perseverance are the equivalent of being willing to go through the process of re-evaluating our decisions and actions. It's all part of the cycle in taking that next step to our final destination. This definitely does not mean charge ahead blindly, it means learning from our mistakes and successes. We need to do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Looking at our journey this way makes it a much more rewarding experience. "Look at all I have learned" instead of "look at how much I've messed up".

Finally we need that passion. It's unlikely that we will be passionate all of the time. We need to think back to the early days of our journey, our why. It helps down to write down your original vision so you don't lose track of what you're working for, and always add to it. Re-visiting this often will keep you on track and full of the grit needed. Don't just read it, visualize yourself in a world where you're living your vision. Play a song that really gets you pumped up, close your eyes and see it. What does it look like? How do you feel? How has the lives of your customers changed? How has the world changed? Who are you to stop this from happening? If you don't make this happen who will? Now look at A-B, what is it in the scheme of things now?

Stay present, focus on what is directly in front of you, laugh at every challenge you're given with acceptance as you realise these are just getting you closer to your goal. Remember no mountain has ever been too tall, no ocean too wide, to stop our species from achieving our dreams. Now let me see your war face!

The Game of Hashtags

MAKE NO MISTAKE, tweets and their hashtags can be an effective tool for online activism. Whether it be spreading the word for campaigns, or raising awareness to important issues, saying they can't, would be denying what’s right in front of you. The fact that some governments are trying to introduce complete bans to Twitter in their respective countries is proof that an impact is made.

A recent example includes China banning search requests regarding the Tiananmen Square in order to erase this tragic history.

Even photos like this were taken down!

Among the images censored in China on Tiananmen anniversary... pic.twitter.com/bF6Jdqz44I
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) June 6, 2014

because it looked too much like this

Twitter, the tool that your government would appreciate you only using to talk about fun stuff like the world cup, or cats.  Our focus and concern then should not be if Tweets get the message across, but if we really understand what the message is.

Tweets, a string of words limited to 140 characters, are trying to communicate a point by cramming as much information as possible into a small sentence or two. So it's quite understandable that this can lead to some misinterpretation, but would you blame a hammer for hitting your thumb? 

Power to the Tweeters

"I've always had mixed emotions about what's been coined as "hashtag activism," and that term has definitely been thrown at this hashtag over the past few days.  I've openly pondered before how much good social media hashtags to "raise awareness" actually does, and how slapping a hashtag on something is more often a quick way to pat oneself on the back for being moral than it is a true way to take action...

But #YesAllWomen is truly beyond awareness and hashtag activism..."

-Jenni Chiu

On their own, tweets are quite harmless, but when there are enough tweets, people notice. Especially if the subject is addressing serious issues. #YesAllWomen, still on-going, was sparked by the tragic shootings in California targeting women by Elliot Rodgers. This served to open the floodgates on a topic that was seemingly invisible to people around the world, unless you are a woman. The hashtag campaign #YesAllWomen has now become a voice for women and has steered public opinion on feminism 

From this

“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”  
- Pat Robertson


To this.

Still, people have their doubts on the effectiveness of tweets and hashtags. For many it is a challenge to understand what the root cause is for many of the issues behind the hashtag on their screens.

Concerns

Like a game of telephone (or Chinese whispers), tweets distort the original message. #BringBackOurGirls was in response to the mass kidnapping of over 200 girls in Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. Many thought the issue was about Boko Haram. 

"Domestically, the #BringBackOurChildren campaign isn't aimed at the perpetrators of the attack: Boko Haram seem unlikely to be swayed by tweets (remember, their name literally means "Western education is sinful"). It's aimed at the government who have appeared inept the Boko Haram problem for too long. Critics of Goodluck Johnathan's government are quick to point out that Nigeria's army has left hundreds dead in its fight against the militant group, many of whom were civilians. Economic factors are at play too: while Nigeria's economy may have been declared to be the biggest in Africa recently, living standards are still low, glaringly so when compared to those of the Nigerian political elite."

-Adam Taylor

Tweeting in response to these controversial topics is doing nothing more than giving yourself a pat on the back. This may be true, but the problem is not that someone is just doing it for a quick feel good. If this were the case, then the pros of spreading awareness would far outweigh the cons of somebody getting off on "feeling" good about themselves. 

The real problem is that people may not even know what they are tweeting about when they choose to get involved for this reason! eg. #Kony2012.

The result of the viral Kony campaign may have helped chase Kony out of the country, but in doing so, international demands to capture Kony eased pressures on other more dangerous rebel groups, like M23. Since the Kony Campaign, these other groups have had more freedom to operate in a similar region. Resources were diverted away from them and towards capturing Kony. Granted, the video's purpose was indeed to motivate people to speak out against Kony and raise awareness, which it achieved. Unfortunately, this didn't address the climate which allowed for the rise of someone like Kony and others like him.

This reminds me of a saying carpenters use "measure twice, cut once". Before you tweet, make sure you check the facts, twice. Many people have been caught out believing something that a quick query on Google could have given them a better understanding on. Always check for both supporting information and objective information, then decide on what to tweet.

Tweets lessen the severity of the issues.  Not true, without the use of hashtags and tweets, they may never have been recognised on the global stage. The real cause for our lapse in empathy or compassion isn't due to Twitter, its part of being human.

Unity

Many philosophers and researchers, like Peter Singer, believe that as a species, we've always been more concerned about matters that are closer to our families and communities. 

"Our species has spent millions of years evolving as social mammals with offspring who need their parents' care for many years. For most of these millions of years, parents who did not care for their children during this period of dependence were unlikely to pass on their genes. Hence our concern for the welfare of others tends to be limited to our kin, and to those with whom we are in cooperative relationships, and perhaps to members of our own small tribal group."

How does one challenge a trait that was instilled in us by nature itself? One idea is to change our perception of the planet we live on. Billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates said something similar to Forbes when he was asked what advice he would give to the next US president to improve American Competitiveness and innovation. Bill said

 'I tend to think more about improving the entire world as opposed to relative positions. Otherwise you could say "Hey, World War II was great because the US was in its strongest relative position when that was over.""

This idea of a globalized state of empathy is of course no small task, and it won't happen overnight. There are many other factors that affect why we care more about one topic over the other, but at the end of the day, we are one race, and we have one Earth. We are much closer to one another than you would like to think.

Carl Sagan reminds us of this with his timeless essay "The pale blue dot".

#ThatsAWrap

Yes, Twitter and hashtags make for an effective tool in online activism and communication in general. The internet and social media has given us a powerful medium for communicating to one another, and so our challenge is to learn how to use these tools better.

 Don't be afraid to speak out for what you believe in or what you think, but it doesn't hurt to check the facts. In fact it may hurt NOT to check them. What, how, and to who you decide to tweet to could support the militarization of a foreign country, OR, it could support a change for the better.

Would you trust some one who has never failed?

"Failure is success in progress"

-Albert Einstein

http://taptotransform.com/uncategorized/releasing-the-fear-of-failure/

  If a society won't accept failure it wont understand what progress is.  Society has an overwhelming obsession with the word "SUCCESS", but is this justified? Why is there such a large emphasis on success, but not on what comes before?  

The way success is portrayed and communicated to us, the people, is without a glance to what supersedes all successes,  failure.  The result? 

 People become disheartened when they fail, they lose self esteem, they go from a "can do" attitude to "never again". They say to themselves..."well I guess it was just not meant to be."  They think the only right outcome is success.  

Eduardo Zanatta says in a TED Talk, "We fail at something and quit because we create this story that says, this is going to happen again if I try again, so why try?"

I've stated in a previous post, this isn't our fault for thinking like this, a lot of this comes from our development at an early age.  Our success used to be measured by the outcome, not the effort, but its changing.  

Denis Waitley-

"There are no failures or mistakes, only lessons and successes."

 I find myself very fortunate to be part of an educational "experiment" at the age of 29 at Monash University Clayton.  Part of a program that is designed to depart on its students a very important trait,  Self-actualization.

  We are even more fortunate, to be the audience to Politicians, Leaders and entrepreneurs alike.  One speaker, our first speaker, Sam Prince, was among my  favorite speakers, but before he mentioned any of his failures I felt as if he were a god.  Something I could never become, standing on some precipice far beyond where I could reach. I was dwarfed and intimidated by his successes.  Until he talked about his failures.  

Failures are something we can all empathize with, because we all encounter them.  The second he showed he was not perfect, my respect for him rose exponentially, we all have our flaws.  What made him cool, was that he wasn't just cool talking about his flaws, he accepted them. 

In a world where people stop after the first failed shot on goal, who are our leaders?  Those, that have succeeded. Yet most of us only focus on the shots they made, ignorant to how many they took to get where they are.  

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

-Michael Jordan

Today, do you think people are hired based on their failures or their successes?

Maryling Yu, wrote for Forbes and said

 "...Failure, however, offers ample opportunity for growth, self-awareness, and personal development. Those who do take this opportunity emerge as better employees – they are humble, teachable, thoughtful, and more likely to succeed the next time they try something..."

Michael Powell, President and CEO at NCTA, wrote for LinkedIn and said - 

"The ability to learn from failure, not pure talent alone, is the greatest predictor of success."

Failure, and our leaders

Think of who you consider a leader, past or present, and I'm positive their successes will be the reason why you remember them. I guarantee they have failed and the lessons they learned from those failures, were more important than any lesson they got from succeeding.  

Einstein; Failed at school constantly, now recognized internationally for his reasoning and intellect.

Henry Ford; Started a motor company before Ford Motors, and it sucked.  Then he made Ford Motors and his vehicles dominated the nation and parts of the world.
  

I hope I have redefined what success is to you, to me, it is turning any outcome into a win win.  Either victory, or a lesson learned.  Hopefully we can empower those around us in society to feel this way.

I'm going to leave you with a question, Feel free to answer it in the comments below.

Is it possible to be a good leader without having failed? 

I think you know my answer, but what do you think?

Resources

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130924104253-271580474-how-i-hire-i-look-for-your-failures-and-your-character

Eduardo Zanatta - http://www.innosight.com/about-us/eduardo-zanatta.cfm

Open 2 Study - Entrepreneurship and Family Business (Entp)

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_75.htm

Part 2 A cup of failures is worth more than a drop of success

Failing is winning

(Art credit- D* Face)

Were taught how "bad" failure is during our most important years of development that may have the longest lasting emotional footprint. This isn't our own fault.  Our upbringing caused a nasty taste to be associated with the word failure when spoken out loud.  Like a finger is being pointed at someone, and that person should be ashamed.

  This is so frustrating to me.  Failure has to be embraced, like a warm body on a cold night!  Well maybe not that tight....or personal.  If we ever want to go anywhere, we need to not only be willing to make mistakes (see my post on fear here), but willing to accept that we made one, learn from it, and move on.  

 Failure, what the hell is it?

Its horrible, its red, it ruins your self worth, makes your mom and dad really pissed off, can taste burnt, could cost you an aquarium and end up getting flushed down the toilet, causes people to laugh at you, causes you to laugh at others and more....no those are negatives that we pick up on.  Isn't it weird how you always remember the bad stuff? I remember the people that have wronged me or hated me the most...what a waste of emotion!  Ultimately it falls under two categories. 

1. Those who fail because they're too afraid to try (if you're afraid to try as we learned from part 1, you should be trying more!)
2. Those who crash and burn because their attempts didn't work. (this one is the right one).

The failure we want MORE of in life, the symptom of trying, its our goal, and there is no better pursuit.


when People are trying more, they're taking chances and making it happen.  Sure they might fail....wait...thats great!  No one succeeds without trying.  

Fear of failure is preventing yourself from even trying.  

"oh no im not afraid of failing, i'm just waiting until i have a better understanding of ...." "it wasn't the right moment…" 

 screw that!  


"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. " -Theadore Roosevelt


Every second you tell yourself that you're not ready yet, its another lesson lost, and another success put on hold.  Trying to be successful without failing is like trying to distinguish dark from light by only knowing one.  

Failure is without a doubt our biggest teacher, mentor, and Sifou out there.  It adds to our life experiences, it helps distinguish us. 

We need to be trying more, and more and more.  Ask a successful business man about what they did right, and they may or may not be able to tell you what they did.  Could have been luck.


  Ask him about his failures and he can tell you what went wrong, why, and what he learned.  You can, and will, learn more from failures than you can from success.  instead of trying to figure out the perfect way of doing something, just do it!  Try it.  Like a friend told me there are good ideas and good stories.  If its not one it'll be the other.

How to fail better

One of the biggest backlashes we feel as a result from failure is that…well…it didn't go the way we expected.  Thats the cause for the anger and frustration we see on the roads.  You get cut off by some d**chebag on your way to work and you react, "how could they?! heathens!!!" The philosopher, Seneca, had much to say on how we get frustrated when things don't go the way we plan. 

The recommended way of dealing with this is to consider your decisions an experiment
…they may or may not go the way you expect, but make sure you pay attention to the result.  Even if isn't what you wanted to see, its what is there, and its there for a reason.  So at the very least, to make damn sure you don't make the same mistake twice, make sure to pay attention to your mistakes.  

Some times, as stated, failures can lead to results we didn't expect.  That doesn't mean we need to throw away what we've done.  Often these results can contain the lesson...or in fact be the answer to a completely different question.



Start projects
http://www.instructables.com/

Learn a new skill
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/24-invaluable-skills-to-learn-for-free-online-this-year

A new language! 
https://www.duolingo.com/

(follow me on duolingo AndrewGd2)


 If it makes you uncomfortable, then do it.  That uncomfortable, tightness where you're throat is? nervousness?  That is your target! Once you lock in on that, start taking steps forward, you're breaking down barriers man!  You will achieve new heights, gain new perspectives, new friendships, understand more about yourself.  And if you give up, don't feel bad we all do at some point, just start again!

 Start a business, project, blog, fail at blogging ;) anything.



-Andrew

Giving to Charity, why you shouldn't stay silent.

On my way to work today, a man and I made eye contact, and I immediately thought...."shit!"

 It was that so familiar, "I can see you seeing me, I'm about to walk up to you now and start talking....here i come" look.

He wore a top hat, a flannel shirt, had lots of necklaces, one with a card attached that had his membership number to Wildlife Australia, a few bracelets, ripped jeans, and some old shoes.  He was warm, with a genuine look on his face.

"Do you have any concerns facing the environment? he asked.
"how long can you talk for?  I have to go to work in a few minutes"  I replied

He informed me of Wildlife Australia
"I'm a member" I said
"right on!" he replied and gave me a high five
"you just saved me heaps of time thanks man!" he continued.  We shook hands and he left.

"F**K! why would I lie about that ?" I asked myself

...this started a huge wave of personal reflection and self critiquing.

Obviously, my lying had something to do with my uncomfortableness with dealing with these guys.  Everyone I know feels this way though.....but why?  People asking for stuff, walking right up to you, maybe they call you up at dinner time non stop, asking for donations.  GIVE ME A BREAK! we think to ourselves.  Not me please don't....no i don't want to discuss this right now... don't make me say no!

Not only that but I feel bad every time I say no.  So then why am I saying no?  Why do I have a bad feeling when these guys are walking up to me to ask for my help?  I love helping people.  I care about people, the environment, our home.  If i had to believe in a divine power, it would be the earth and everything on it, so why wasn't i listening to the call of her children to help?!

I'm really starting to believe that over time, a few things have tainted our idea of charity and giving.  This is my personal opinion.

Firstly, we are emotional creatures.  We make decisions based off our emotions, and justify them afterwards with the "logical" side of our brain (the level of "logicness" is relative to each individual) So I can assume I'm not donating because of an emotional reason.  Then i don't donate.  Then i justify it.  An excuse you may have heard yourself say is,

"I shouldn't donate to make myself feel good."

While you and I are busy not donating because we don't want to feel good about it, some one is out there suffering.  So the IDEA that altruism is the only reason to donate, can be thrown out.  Doing things only because its the right thing to do robs a lot of people of possible help.  We should help because of all the reasons, the acceptable and the non acceptable.

We're slowly becoming programmed more and more to not donate.  Our brains are trained to dedicate less emotion/empathy to occurrences that regularly elicit an emotional response.  Its one of our many forms of adapting and preserving our sanity.  This leads to something called compassion fatigue in professions like EMT's and Doctors, but on a faster/larger scale.   We start to care less and less.

The same thing is happening here.  Before we would stop and listen to these guys...these "do-gooders" talk all day about how we are going to make a difference by donating.  Now we can spot them a mile away and walk right past them without feeling anything for the most part...maybe even relief?  

Another reason not to donate is because you genuinely don't want to give up that cheddar!
I have gone down this path before.  I've signed up, then retracted my money.  Later on i think about it...Basically i could have supported this charity membership if i only stopped drinking 5 cokes a month...I spend my money on much dumber stuff, so surely 5 cokes i can do...but i still withdraw...why?!

I've started to wonder if we are increasingly wired by society to not give.  "Why don't we talk about charity?" I started to ask myself....
"wait...seriously why, as a society do we talk so little about charity?!"

Some of my friends and I do, but not like we talk about things like, sports, music, politics, relationships.   We don't discuss charities at the dinner table.  Why are we so focused on the problem.  We talk about all these horrible things going on overseas but the actual solution which is there in front of all of us is so much harder to talk about?

"Holy crap!? why don't we talk about charity?! Isn't it important to all of us?! of course it is..."
So i started to search around the internet and what I saw was horrible.

People who start to talk about their dealings with a charity, Even how helping out a charity has made them feel, get flamed and harassed by complete strangers!  Some even get given crap by their friends and family!

  I couldn't believe it.  How can we expect more people to want to donate when we can't even talk about charity without people looking down at us for talking about it?

The problem comes from what we describe as bragging, and bragging is looked down upon in almost every religion and ideology out there.  As soon as people start to talk about charity they have done, they get labelled as braggers.

 Granted, there are people who are seeking validation, attention, recognition for their good deeds, but this isn't just their fault, and it shouldn't matter!

If we all donated, there would be nothing to brag about, more importantly Bragging does not change the end result.  What we are really getting upset over is our own problems.  I find most people who are getting upset about people bragging or accusing people of bragging fall into two categories.

People who feel bad about not donating themselves, and so flame those who do donate or brag/talk about it.

• these guys need to get over themselves.  No one likes a hypocrite.

People who are actually humble about their donations and think no one should talk about it.

• You guys I understand less, they are still donating and the money is going to a good cause.  Do you run up to a person driving a Ferrari and give them a piece of your mind for "showing off"? How is this different?

there is a difference between bragging and acknowledging something, but they may not be distinguishable to some.

 I want to encourage acknowledging the charity you and others have done.
Spread the word, we need more of this.  You can't believe that not sharing stories of your donations would give that charity more attention than actually discussing it.

Tell people how it makes you feel, and why!  Talk about the good its doing and why its important to you! 

  Charity is charity, there is no right or wrong way (as long as we're not hurting anyone).  The more the better.

Think about all those Socially Responsible companies like

Toms
Hero Condoms
Shebeen bar

and others that have consumer driven charity built in.  They are profiting off of people suffering.  Yes that is one way to look at it, if you're a pessimist.  Or we can look at the end results.  Lives being saved, lives being changed, people getting an education and opportunities they would never dreamed of getting.

These guys are generating large revenues over peoples hardships, but they are making a HUGE difference.

How is that different for some one donating because it makes them feel better about themselves and discussing it?  The same thing is achieved.  You are helping some one, and their is personal gain.

When you talk about a petition you want people to sign, you don't just sign it and stay silent, then try not to feel good.  You ask around, you talk about it, spam the shit out of your friends news feed until they question if your Facebook account hasn't been hacked.

You tell people why you did it, why it matters to you.  If it doesn't matter to you well no dramas then.  I like to believe that charity matters to everyone (i know it matters to you I'm just being silly).

If we lived in a society, where everyone donated, talking about charity would be common place. Thats because it would just be a part of life.  Like filling up your car with gas/petrol, going to the doctors, and it should be, in fact, I know it will be, one day.

Until then we need to do all we can to bring it closer.  Help everyone!  The hardest problem should be choosing a charity.  I myself will have to look a couple up to make up for my horrible lie today. I'll keep you posted.

BUT TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK.  Am i crazy? do you agree? Have a better idea? let me know down below!

I'll continue my series next week...i just had to throw this question out there.

-Andrew