When giving money, give to nonprofits that measure what matters to you. That’s advice from Mary Ellen Iskenderian (pictured), President and CEO, Women’s World Banking.
Watch video here: big think interview
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Archive for the 'Enlighten Me!' Category
When It Comes to Giving, Measure What Matters
Published January 13, 2012 Economic growth , Enlighten Me! , Finance , Gender challenges , Social Entrepreneurship , World entrepreneurship Leave a CommentTags: big think, Laurel Delaney, Mary Ellen Iskenderian, measure what matters, Women's World Banking
Make a Difference For Women in Conflict-Stricken Countries
Published December 15, 2011 Economic growth , Education , Enlighten Me! , Gender challenges , Inspiration , Social Entrepreneurship , Sustainability practices , Training (entrepreneurial) Leave a CommentTags: Afghanistan, Bpeace, emerging entrepreneurs, Laurel Delaney, make a difference for women
Are you running a business? Then you might want to offer your skills to emerging entrepreneurs the world over. Find out about the difference Bpeace (Bpeace blog) is making in our businesses and the lives of many Afghans — leading to peace building in Afghanistan.
Learn more here.
Photo credit here (related to Bpeace)
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Where in the World Are Women Rising Fastest?
Published November 8, 2011 Economic growth , Enlighten Me! , Gender challenges , global women entrepreneurs Leave a CommentTags: Forbes, global women entrepreneurs, Laurel Delaney, women entrepreneurs, women rising fastest
Where are women entrepreneurs rising fastest? Forget the advanced country of the United States! It’s Sao Paulo (related article here), Manila and Mumbai where women are leapfrogging to business ownership. What are they selling? Think simplistically: mangoes and home-made blouses.
Women in these countries are newly empowered by remarkable gains in political representation, legal rights and, especially, education. But more important, they are rising in the 21st century’s key economic strata: as business owners.
Read the entire article here.
Illustration credit: DCED
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
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Be Like Steve
Published November 3, 2011 Enlighten Me! , Innovation , Inspiration Leave a CommentTags: 12 ways to be like Steve Jobs, American Express OPEN Forum, be like Steve, Laurel Delaney, Small Business Trends, Steve Jobs
Photo credit: ©Laurel Delaney 2011 "Steve Jobs Collage"
Whether male or female, we can all glean lessons from the likes of the late Steve Jobs. For example:
1. Push people out of their comfort zones
“He was someone who did not read the polls, but changed the polls by giving people what he was certain they wanted and needed before they knew it; he was someone who was ready to pursue his vision in the face of long odds over multiple years; and, most of all, he was someone who earned the respect of his colleagues, not by going easy on them but by constantly pushing them out of their comfort zones and, in the process, inspiring ordinary people to do extraordinary things.”
— Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize winning author
Read the eleven other ways you can be more like Steve that I cover for The World :: American Express OPEN Forum (via Small Business Trends).
12 Ways to Be Like Steve Jobs
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Three Women Are Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize
Published October 19, 2011 Announcement , Award/recognition/nomination(s) , Enlighten Me! , Gender challenges , Inspiration 1 CommentTags: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Laurel Delaney, Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize, Tawakkul Karman, women entrepreneurs grow global, women's rights
Photo courtesy of: Ahmed Jadallah/Scanpix
And the winners are: Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni rights campaigner Tawakkul Karman (pictured).
All of them have been recognized by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
Congratulations to Ellen, Leymah and Tawakkul. We are very proud of you and thank you for the important work you do on behalf of women throughout our world.
Read more here.
Photo of: Tawakkul Karman
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Reinventor of Our Planet: Steve Jobs
Published October 6, 2011 Announcement , Enlighten Me! , Inspiration , World entrepreneurship Leave a CommentTags: Apple, death of Steve Jobs, insanely inspiring, Laurel Delaney, reinventor of our planet, Steve Jobs, Tom Peters
- Photo courtesy: ©Laurel Delaney 2010, “Apple store, Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL U.S.A.”
Always giving his best work to the world, Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011 (1955-2011). His death triggered a remembrance to reading a wonderful On Excellence column by Tom Peters in 1993 (I saved all of his hard copy columns back then that were published in the Chicago Tribune – this particular one can be found here online) and he said the following about Steve Jobs:
Photo: Steve Jobs courtesy Technorati
Take Steve Jobs, one of Fortune’s seven nasties. I’ve seen him, in his days at Apple, lose his cool on occasion. Not a particularly pretty sight.
Yet I was thoroughly taken aback by one of Jobs’ “excesses,” as chronicled by Fortune. A subordinate at Next Computer was showing Jobs shades of green for the company’s logo. More precisely, she produced some 37 shades of green before coming upon one that pleased the master. “Oh, come on,” the minion recalled thinking, “green is green.”
Oh no it isn’t!
Almost every step Jobs took at Apple (and Next) broke the mold; moreover, it defied industry tradition as set by the all-powerful, undisputed master of the universe (IBM). To say Jobs was fighting an uphill battle is to suggest that Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight across the Atlantic was “challenging.” Jobs was reviled and ridiculed. Yet he reinvented the computer world, in a way that makes Bill Gates’ more recent contributions at Microsoft seem meager by comparison.
How did Jobs do it? By worrying about which shade of green was “right.” He triumphed with the Apple II. Then the Macintosh. It was precisely his stratospheric standards (“insanely great” was a common Jobsism in days past) that allowed him and his enormously spirited teams to push past the existing frontier time and time again.
No sir. Green is not green. Not if you’re reinventing the planet. Which is not to applaud his tirades. But it is to suggest that for every disaffected Apple or Next employee burned by Jobs, there are probably 10 who by age 28 achieved Neil Armstrong-like lifetime highs at his side. Perhaps the bitterness of some stems from the subliminal realization they’ll never soar so high again. It’s a nightmare for a 28-year-old software designer, just as it is for 30-year-old Michael Jordan.
My two best bosses were my two toughest bosses. Neither was a screamer, although one came reasonably close. Both practiced psychological terrorism-though neither knew he was doing so.
Both set mercilessly high standards for themselves. And neither believed in barriers to achievement, including acts of God (which were seen simply as opportunities to demonstrate one’s mettle as never before).
We will miss Steve Jobs. But his legacy as the master creator will live on within each of us as we continue to give our best work to the world. May he rest in peace.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
How Kenyan Businesswoman Succeeds After Receiving U.S. Training
Published September 6, 2011 Country specific , Economic growth , Education , Enlighten Me! , Training (entrepreneurial) , World entrepreneurship Leave a CommentTags: Borderbuster, Borlaug Fellowship Program, Eunice Mwongera, Hillside Green Growers, Laurel Delaney, The Global Small Business Blog, World Bank
Our sister organization, The Global Small Business Blog, under its parent organization GlobeTrade.com, just published their latest monthly e-newsletter, “Borderbuster,” (Issue No. 116 – sign up here) and it is only fitting for this blog post to mention the quote that was featured under the Wind Behind Your Sail section:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~Winston Churchill
That said, two years ago, Eunice Mwongera (pictured left) decided to grow her Hillside Green Growers and Exporters Company, a family-owned fruit and vegetable business. A graduate of Nairobi University and former finance officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Ms. Mwongera, applied for the USDA Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology (Borlaug) Fellowship Program.
Within a year of completing her fellowship, Ms. Mwongera had successfully applied many of the business skills and concepts she learned. Not only had she succeeded in increasing export markets for Hillside Green from three to seven countries, but Mwongera also started her own poultry, rabbit, and fish farming operation. In addition, Mwongera modified her company’s strategic and export plans, aligned Hillside Green’s food safety standards with international industry standards, and adopted new technologies.
Learn more about Ms. Mwongera’s success story here and visit the Borlaug Fellowship Program here.
So back to Churchill’s quote above, yes, Mwongera is giving back after receiving U.S. training. We are delighted to know and we wish her continued success with her business expansion initiatives.
Related article:
Eunice Mwongera of Hillside Green Growers Is Featured in World Bank’s Quarterly Publication
Photo courtesy here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Women Worldwide Grow From Learning Online For Free
Published August 22, 2011 Education , Enlighten Me! , Video 1 CommentTags: free online courses, Harvard University Extension School, Khan Academy, Laurel Delaney, learning online for free, MIT, Open Culture, open source studying, study online for free
Below are three places to study online for personal enrichment and professional success. Most of these are complimentary.
1. Open Culture (www.openculture.com)
• Free cultural and educational media on the web.
2. Harvard University Extension School (www.extension.harvard.edu/openlearning)
• Free, noncredit courses are offered online by Harvard Extension School’s Open Learning Initiative. Featuring Harvard faculty, the courses are open to the public.
3. Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org)
• With a library of over 2,400 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 125 practice exercises, Khana Academy is on a mission to help you learn whatever you want, whenever you want, at your own pace.
We wrote about learning online for FREE at our big sister organization – The Global Small Business Blog – who sponsors us!
Illustration credit: Harvard University Extension School
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
A Sikh-American Falls Into the Whirlwind
Published August 13, 2011 Country specific , Education , Enlighten Me! , Inspiration Leave a CommentTags: falling into the whirlwind, Laurel Delaney, Sikh-American, Valarie Kaur
Read one woman’s journey – Sikh-American activist and filmmaker Valarie Kaur (pictured) — discovers how challenging the status quo exacts a toll. In it, she works to heal her divided nation.
It requires humanizing our opponents so that we work to transform them, rather than destroy and replace them. I now believe that the way we make change is just as important as the change we make. I would never have learned this without falling into the whirlwind.
Read: Leaping into the Whirlwind
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Magic in Madagascar
Published August 6, 2011 Country specific , Education , Enlighten Me! Leave a CommentTags: Devon Fine Jewelry, Laurel Delaney, Madagascar, The Devon Foundation
Nancy Schuring of New Jersey’s (U.S.A.) Devon Fine Jewelry fell in love with Madagascar while gem hunting. As a result, she started a scholarship foundation — The Devon Foundation — to help its people.
During the summer of 2008, Nancy Schuring, Debbie Swinney, and Joe Portale traveled to distant Madagascar for an educational and gem-hunting experience. Our guide was Jim Fiebig, a Gemstone and Jewelry Industry expert. We encountered a fascinating country with striking landscapes, incredible gems, and lovely citizens. The gentle Malagasy people are cheerful and optimistic despite their severe poverty. These brave people touched our hearts and inspired a creative and compassionate response.
Take a peek at their Namakoo (means “my friend” in the Malagasy language) collection (pictured above). All purchases raise funds for the foundation.
There are boundless opportunities to help people in our world, especially in Madagascar. Learn how here.
Photo credit here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
