Start Something That Matters

by Blake Mycoskie

Whereas past leaders tended to be egomaniacal and charismatic, commanders in the mode of a General Patton,

Always remember: The better your employees feel about their jobs, the better your business performs.

One way to motivate is to make sure your team is all on the same page,

“The Servant as Leader,” the term refers to someone who uses qualities like empathy, listening skills, stewardship, and awareness rather than power to assert his or her authority to lead.

Chanakya

one of the clearest ways to build the kind of trust you’ll need to succeed is to admit your own mistakes.

It made other staffers believe that we do what we say we do—refuse to tolerate anyone who disrupts our culture.

Company culture needs to be maintained at all costs.

80 percent of all disease on the planet was related to a lack of clean water and basic sanitation, and that 1.1 billion people did not have access to this most basic need,

Charity: water has administrative costs, with twenty-six employees in New York and Scott’s constant travel around the globe. But those costs are raised and allocated differently from the charity itself, so people who contribute to charity: water always know where their money is going.

we are a for-profit company. Our goal is to help people and to make money doing it. We have never hidden that from anyone and in so doing have paved the way for a new type of social venture.

Whether you’re starting a corporation, a social enterprise, a nonprofit, or are working within an existing organization where you have a degree of autonomy, begin your new venture by stating your goals clearly and regularly.

compliment publicly and criticize privately, but do both directly.

show some emotion when talking to your people.

When you micromanage, you’re effectively telling people that you don’t trust their judgment

making your donors feel confident their dollars are doing good things—

that it costs comparatively little to feed a child in school for a year: The world average ranges from twenty to fifty dollars.

the little girl, who was now attending school and eating well, was confident and happy. ‘I want to be president of Rwanda,’ she said.”

Lauren loves her work more than just about anyone I know.

giving is good business—

So many good things happen to you when giving is integrated into your business—

jaded. I had met too many business leaders who created an inspiring message but didn’t practice it. I thought I’d never be inspired again by my career. Now I am.

when people feel they are all working together to help others, office morale is high, and negative office politics don’t tend to develop.

GOOD magazine, “the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good,”

TerraCycle to take used Frito-Lay packages and turn them into quality goods. The program encourages consumers and local community groups to earn money by collecting the used packaging and at the same time redirect packaging from landfills.

Both companies benefit from the arrangement—and, more important, it exponentially increases the amount of good that gets accomplished.

these partnerships have made our global giving possible, as well as more powerful.

Timberland allows full-time employees to take a week off from the office to work with its own service initiative called Path of Service.

pick whichever project he or she wishes and is paid a regular weekly salary.

having an impact can spring from the efforts of wonderful people taking the initiative within an existing company.

Today, Race for the Cure is the largest breast cancer fund-raising event in North America—all because CIBC employees got together to make sure that their company gave back to its community.

Even if you’re not going to start a company that matters, you can still start something small that can be built into something that matters in a very big way.

Don’t make giving an afterthought.

Design your product, offer your service, donate your money, or volunteer your time based on what the organization you wish to help needs, not on what you want to give.

Commit to always listening and always learning.

Don’t create a situation in which your gift contains hidden costs to the recipient. Ask questions about the entire cost of delivering your gift and, if you ca...

Put as few restrictions as possible on your gift

Ask your giving partners what information other donors are requiring for reporting to try to save them time on formatting and presentation, while still making sure you receive the critical information you need to complete your own mission.

Keep seeking feedback to improve your giving.

Ask for feedback on how your gift of time, money, or resources is or is not working, and then go back to point #1.

So simplify things and just think about one issue, even one person.

microloan website like Kiva.org allows you to help banks make loans to individuals for a specific project,

Ask questions, truly listen, and then tailor your gift so that it is even more impactful.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. —MAHATMA GANDHI

that consumers don’t buy products. They buy solutions.

create a local solution to a global challenge,

formulating our business plan and proposals were challenges, as were crafting a story that was easy to believe in while proving that our idea was sustainable and economically feasible.

who are moving from thinking about doing something to actually doing it.

Every big company you see today was once small.

None of the people mentioned in this book said they were so confident when they began that they knew they were starting a large business or a major nonprofit. They just felt compelled to start something. So they did.