THERE’S ALWAYS A REASON: A QUICK AND VITAL UPDATE
In an earlier post, I essentially raved about Twitter (and Jelly) founder Biz Stone’s brilliant book, ‘Things a Little Bird Told Me.’
I told how I’d read 85% of the book and was stunned by its impact.
Well now, I’ve read the last 15%.
And if anything, my earlier ‘raves’ under-estimated the impact of the book.
Here’s why: The last part of the book (and people always leave the best until last, right) is all about one thing, Giving Back There’s way too much in it to even summarise it here — everything from media-star Steven Colbert’s $25 gift that ‘changes everything’ to this really surprising piece: Stone had giving so much ingrained in him that he hired a person to handle Twitter’s giving back before he hired a salesperson! That’s called walking the talk.
Even more importantly, Stone makes a vital point that we’re beginning to understand more and more here at B1G1 —
Don't ever wait for success to start giving.
That is so, so crucial.
And it poses an interesting question: why do people say ‘when I’m successful, I’ll start giving’.
Well, you could make the point that you’ll never get there that way. Or perhaps that giving has to be part of the journey, not the destination.
But more interestingly perhaps is to look a little deeper and understand that it might just have something to do with our business ‘culture’ in as much as we often (or perhaps always) associate giving with B1G1, HUGE things. Like ‘XYZ Company just gave a Zillion Dollars to eliminate poverty in Africa’ for example. Big, huge stuff.
But what if that wasn’t at all what it was about. What if it was as simple as understanding that just one cent can make a difference (it gives a child access to water for a day as just one example; there are a host of other examples right here)
There is always a reason. Like almost accidentally picking up Biz Stone’s seriously great book.