New Episode of My Story, your Story: Blake Mycoskie (Founder of TOMS shoes): ONE for ONE

New Episode of My Story, your Story 

Blake Mycoskie (Founder of TOMS shoes): ONE for ONE

My name is Abraham John. After watching Blake Mycoskie’s story, he became one of my inspiration towards giving back to the society and also pursuing the vision of seeing others understand the importance of giving. He changed so may children's STORY and made them smile. With this, he has inspired so many people to introduce the ONE for ONE exercise that made remarkable impact. It is indeed a privilege.

Acknowledged as one of today’s most dynamic serial entrepreneurs, Blake Mycoskie launched five successful companies before the age of 30. He is best known as the founder and “chief shoe giver” of TOMS shoes, a for-profit company with a unique social enterprise model that has drawn tremendous media attention. Providing a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold, they have distributed more than 400,000 pairs of shoes to children around the world to date. Darren Whitehead, teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, will interview Mycoskie on leading organizations with a cause and navigating the start-up phase of an organization.

Blake Mycoskie was interviewed in one of the Global leadership summit and this was his remarkable answers which can help you key into your vision properly and also do something good to your community.

Why did you get into the shoe business?

• I wasn’t trying to get into the shoe business. I was on vacation in Argentina, saw some volunteers doing a shoe drive. Thought it was unsustainable. Didn’t want to start a charity, wanted to start a business.
• For every pair of shoes bought, they give away a pair.

The word “give” is on just about every wall in the offices of TOMS. Why?

• It feels good to give.
• What I’ve learned is that giving not only feels good but it’s a good business strategy.
• In a NYC airport, had never seen anyone wearing TOMS. Saw a girl wearing a pair, asked her about the shoes. Pulled Blake aside and told him all about TOMS.
• If we focus on giving, our customers are going to do the marketing for us.
• Have given away more than 600,000 pairs of shoes.

What distinctive are a part of the TOMS culture?

• We involve all our staff in the giving.
• For every employee that’s been with the company at least 2 years they pay for a trip for them to do a shoe drop.
• Not everyone can do a 1-for-1 strategy, but every company can incorporate giving and service.

Why didn’t you just start a non-profit?

• Invested money gained from sale of previous business into TOMS.
• By doing TOMS as a for-profit, it has enabled it to be sustainable and grow.

One Day Without Shoes

• Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlz3QKHJBac
• First year 250,000 people participated.
• Doesn’t cost anything to take off shoes, but enabled people to have conversations.
• Didn’t spend a dollar to advertise, but had some amazing partners.

What happened when you came up with the idea for TOMS?

• Not a big deal when I had the idea.
• Became big to me 6 months later when I did that first shoe drop.
• Woman came up to him and told him that her 3 kids had been sharing 1 pair of shoes.

TOMS has captured the attention of young people. Why?

• Young people want to have a voice and want to do something that matters.  Can’t always afford to do something big, but they’re going to buy a pair of shoes.
• We make it very easy for them to act.
• It becomes a part of their identity.

What have you learned about the importance of strategic partnerships?

• Very blessed.
• Not just corporate partners, but churches as well.
• The reason why the ATT thing worked is because we gave them an authentic story that worked. I’m never in the office.  Their technology enabled me to do what I was doing.

How important is asking people to accomplish your goal?

• People really enjoy it because then they get to be a part of your vision and your journey.
• You can’t be bashful if you want to make change.

What part has your faith played in TOMS

• Give your first fruits
• They stayed true to that principle and didn’t deviate for the 1-for-1 principle even when they were losing money.

What would you say to other young leaders?

• Come work for us!
• We need fantastic leaders to help us get from here to there.
• Thought as a freshman in college that he would be a successful entrepreneur so that then he can give back when he’s retired.  But it’s never too early to start giving.

"It’s never too early to start giving"
Remember, It is always "A Brighter Beginning"

Author Paul

Get more on: http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/08/06/leadership-summit-session-7-blake-mycoskie/#sthash.qtAQd9U2.dpuf

New Episode of My Story, your Story

Abraham John

abrahamsworld.blogspot.com

abrahamwrite@gmail.com

Acknowledged as one of today’s most dynamic serial entrepreneurs, Blake Mycoskie launched five successful companies before the age of 30. He is best known as the founder and “chief shoe giver” of TOMS shoes, a for-profit company with a unique social enterprise model that has drawn tremendous media attention. Providing a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold, they have distributed more than 400,000 pairs of shoes to children around the world to date. Darren Whitehead, teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, will interview Mycoskie on leading organizations with a cause and navigating the start-up phase of an organization. - See more at: http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/08/06/leadership-summit-session-7-blake-mycoskie/#sthash.qtAQd9U2.dpuf

The Promised Child

The Promised Child

See the King is Born,

In a manger he laid,

In the cold he bath,

The hope of the world,

The scope of today.

The Child is born,
Now from the ashes is beauty raised,
Out of darkness comes light of day,
My hands lifted from these broken chains,
Hallelujah.

Oh blessed Child Born in a lowly manger,

A freedom for all,

A life for all,

A love for all,

A future for all.

This is the Child,

Born for you today,

In the town of Bethlehem,

In the mist of all hail men,
The freedom for eternity.

                                      ~~Abraham John

The Global Leadership Summit Opening Session Bill Hybels

The Global Leadership Summit Opening Session 

Bill Hybels

 

• Willow will celebrate it’s 40^th
• Armed with enough humility, leaders can learn from anyone.
• With sufficient levels of humility, religious people can learn from leaders in other walks of life, and vice-versa.
• 8 Critical Functions of Leadership

The 5 Intangibles of Leadership

1. Grit
   Unremitting long-term tenacity.
   Willingness to use every last drop of human effort to move something ahead.
   -Gritty people play hurt
   -Gritty people expect obstacles, but also believe they can overcome them.
   -“The Little Engine That Could”
   -Grit can be developed by anyone who wants it.
   -The arch-enemy of grit is ease.
   -Grit development demands difficulty.
   -Most elite leaders push themselves physically because it conditions them to deal with difficulty.
   -When you grow grit in one area of your life it overflows into other areas as well.
   -When senior leaders display grit (push themselves hard and over deliver), the more others in the organization will develop grit.
   -Gritty organizations are unstoppable.
2. Self-Awareness
   -When you hear about a meltdown in an organization, it can usually be traced to a leader with low self-awareness.
   -Low self-awareness leads to blind spots.
   -Blind spots are those things that someone believes they do well, but everyone else on the team knows it’s not true.
   – The danger with blind spots is that you have no idea they exist.
   -The average person has 3.4 blind spots that they don’t know they have.
   -If you don’t think you have any blind spots, ask your wife and your mother-in-law!
   How do you grow in self-awareness?
   -Not in isolation. You need other people speaking into your life.
   -Demands feedback from others
   -Requires vulnerable conversations with trusted mentors, counselors, and advisors.
3. Resourcefulness
   -Resourceful people are quick learners, endlessly curious, tweakers, inventers, etc.
   -People with high learning agility roll up their sleeves and figure out what it is they need to do go to the next level or get things done.
   -Resourcefulness can be developed but the primary way it is developed is by putting yourself in situations that are confused, broken, or dysfunctional and staying in it until you force yourself to find a way forward.
4. Self-sacrificing Love
   -Story of David forming his army. God led him to love them like family. To serve them, invest in them, pray for them, etc.
   -What God was teaching David in his early years is that self-sacrificing love is the core of the core of leadership.
   -1 Cor. 13:8 – Love never fails.
   -We live in a day with leaders who have narcissistic blood running through their veins.
   -People are yearning for self-sacrificing love.
   -Everyone in the org takes their cues from senior leaders.
   -Gallup – “What separates a high-performing org from a low performing org?”:
   Do workers feel personal concern coming from their managers?
   Get personal. Say those words of affirmation. It will create a high performance culture!
   The quality of the senior leader’s loving will set the tone of the entire organization.
   
5. Creating A Sense of Meaning
   -We should change every person in the organization’s title to “Chief Meaning Officer.”
   -We have to explain the WHY.
   -You’re white hot why…why do you do what you do?
   -When you discover what’s in your “why” you’ll either determine more focus or you’ll figure out that what you’re doing is meaningless.
   -Examples:
   -Steve Jobs – wanted to change the world (not build computer)
   -Howard Schultz (Starbucks) – wanted to provide a space for people to connect (not sell coffee)
   
   

 

An extract from Chuck Scoggins Blog.(http://chuckscoggins.com/blog/2015/08/06/the-global-leadership-summit-opening-session-bill-hybels/)

Abraham John

abrahamsworld.blogspot.com

abrahamwrite@gmail.com

 

TEARS TO CHEERS

Tears to cheers

I have made decisions.
I have made promises.
I have fallen and I have risen.
I have hated and I have loved.
I have cried, and yet I have smiled.
 
I have been broken but yet alive.
I have seen the world, yet Heaven is my goal.
I have lied, yet truth never dies.
I have dreamt and I have thought.
I have all I can say till the end when my life is away.
 
I have.....
 
But now is as fast as the rays of light.
Dark as the days of Sodom and say Gomorrah.
Ignited with the passions the flesh delighted.
We reign with cloths so diluted.
Behind the smiles so graved with lust cemented.
 
Guide us now, lest we fall in the den of temptation.
We are gifted but we have drifted.
Far long ago we missed it.
But the son of man has placed a sign so high be lifted.
Look and find rest for now is the time to be listed.
 
Just listen to His voice beloveth.
He turned our tears to cheers!
So just believe it.
‪#‎justtrustHim‬

Spoken words Written by Abraham John
abrahamwrite@gmail.com
abrahamsworld.blogspot.com

SELF REALIZATION

SELF REALIZATION (fulfillment of one's own potential)

I was once a mediocre not until I realized that I am more than what I think I am and I can do more than what I think.

When you begin to realize you are better

This is the life we are in today. “You control yourself or the world controls you”. There are two stages of self realization that I pictured.

   1.   The starting point (which is self realization which is in Christ). No other starting point can lead you to a fulfilled life except through Christ.

     2.   Self Acceptance (Being able to accept who you are to fulfill life’s purpose)

These two stages will be succinctly explained as we move further. As a societal writer, I noticed that many people with high intelligence and the gem of greatness often limit themselves to settle for less.

This article will help change your mind set from the former life of mediocre to a life of greatness.

Some people never achieve what they want in life just because they do not believe they can achieve it. Some people look at themselves as if they can’t. Some have decided that they can’t, not because they can’t but because they are comfortable with where they are. Some people get comfortable by the relatively hand to mouth experience not because they do not have the opportunity of getting higher and better but just because they feel it’s not necessary to be better.

I will use these three forms to classify human characters

i.             The Chickens

ii.           The ducks

iii.          The Eagle

I will explain the characteristics of each of these animate characters and then see it in the way people or human beings behave in life and situations. These stages will help you understand where you stand and where you need to make amends and make “self realization” a reality.

People under this forms holds the characteristics of each of the forms mentioned above. People exhibit these characteristics.

The Chicken

A chicken doesn’t fly much anyway because their body mass prevents them from getting more than a few feet off the ground. Lighter breeds can fly over six feet high. And even within the heavier breeds, you can always have a few birds with enough determination and wing strength to get high off the ground. A chicken is often restricted as a domestic animal with little or no freedom. Even when the freedom is there he can only fight little preys but a bigger is not its type. So a chicken is always at risk when it meets a dog.

The Duck

Most ducks have this inability to fly as birds and even if they do, it’s just a little flight. Ducks exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians, worms, and small molluscs.

Worldwide, ducks have many predators. Ducklings are particularly vulnerable, since their inability to fly makes them easy prey not only for predatory birds but also large fish like pike, crocodilians, and other aquatic hunters, including fish-eating birds such as herons. Ducks' nests are raided by land-based predators, and brooding females may be caught unaware on the nest by mammals, such as foxes, or large birds, such as hawks or owls.

They are easily captured by their predators.

The Eagle

The Eagles have a keen vision. Their eyes are specially designed for long distance focus and clarity. They can spot another eagle soaring from 50 miles away. An eagle will never surrender to the size or strength of its prey. It will always give a fight to win its prey or regain its territory. The eagle unlike other birds that fly away from the storm with fear, an eagle spreads its mighty wings and uses the current to soar to greater heights. The eagle takes advantage of the very storm that lesser birds fear and head for cover. Eagles can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet, but they are able to swiftly land on the ground ~ Dr, Myles Munroe. When the eagles reach the age of 30, their physical body condition deteriorates fast making it difficult for them to survive. The eagle retreats to a mountaintop and over a five month period goes through a metamorphosis. It knocks off its own beak by banging it against a rock, plucks out its talons and then feathers. Each stage produces a re-growth of the removed body parts, allowing the eagle to live for another 30 - 40 years. The Eagle has the ability to nurture their young ones. Research has shown that no member of the bird family is more gentle and attentive to its young ones than the eagles.

People who achieve greatness in this world are people who have vision for the future. There are many great leaders that came and went but one characteristic that is common in all is "Vision". Vision makes people see things happening. Abraham, Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, guided his country through the most devastating experience in its national history, the Civil War. He had a vision, to save the union and free the slaves. He was able to achieve this through Vision for the future of his country.

Size does not matter at all in this context but the strength and determination to conquer and protect what is most important. The zeal to carry the burden to achieve victory at the end is what matters. No room for given up, no room for turning back.

Being comfortable with where you are and who you are is a step but in the other way round, it’s just like a stagnant water logged in without any movement and no matter the changes made to this water it never changes but gets worse and smells bad. That is how some people look at themselves and it’s surprising they are comfortable in such a mess. They see decisions taken by others as unrealistic but yet there is a flow and a change in movement from one point to a better point. So also, when a river takes in water and flows out, it will remain clean, neat and healthy for life.

There is always something I see in people’s eyes whenever I take a selfie. I see a logged dream wanting to move out but fear and doubt makes dark its part.

There is always something in people’s life that cannot be taken, a greatness that cannot be stolen. So many people smile, yet their smiles are full of tears. Many people living with low self esteem always say “I can’t”. Just because you are not privileged to have now does not mean you cannot have tomorrow. Just because you weren’t born rich does not mean you were born to remain poor. Just because your house is small does not mean you cannot own a nice car. Just because your cloths are not today’s fashion does not mean you are not looking good. Just because your watch is not Gucci does not mean your watch cannot read the time correctly.

You can be whoever you want to be not whatever you want to be because your life is worth more than you think. God’s plan and design for you and me is to make us prosper according to his will but more often we make believe what our lives should be.

You have what it takes to be real, whatever it takes to be better. “Never settle for anything less than the best. Never listen to any voice less than ‘you can’.” Never believe in any dream that make life decide because you are greater than what life presents to you.

You will remain the way you are, if you don’t make an attempt to move an inch to a new life.

The environment and people

Friends who don’t want you to live where you are, wants you to be like them.

Some friends initiate their thought and ideas about life in you, making you feel this is all you can get. Realize this, it’s not you and it’s not them. Low self esteem creates a passion of not trying. It makes you settle for less than the best.

It’s a question? Have you realized who you are? Are you laying low like stagnant water, the chicken or duck? Are you comfortable with what you are today?

Some people live their lives as a chicken, because a chicken never flies more than above a fence or six feet. Lazy people are just like the ducks that keep swimming without gazing beyond their reach to see the greatness in them. The eagle flies about 10,000 feet and achieves the unexpected and unimaginable. It takes risk. The eagle never looks at the size of its prey. No wonder other birds see him as a fool.

Someone once said if your dreams don’t scare you then you have not started dreaming. It wouldn’t even dawn on you to be afraid because your instinct is to protect that which you love and cherish.

We don’t run away from the storms of life but use every resources at our disposal to reach greater heights. Storm we must face in life to achieve greater things.

“Some people have decided that they can’t, not because they can’t but because they are comfortable with where they are” Abraham John.

Realize that you have more than you think. Realize you can do more than you have done. Realize that you can reach beyond the mountains that seem so high to cross. Realize that you were created for a better you not a lesser you. Realize that you have dreams worth more than you have achieved.

“If your dreams don’t scare you then you have not yet started dreaming”.

Be the Eagle of your generation!

Written By Abraham John

abrahamwrite@yahoo.com

abrahamsworld.bldogspot.com

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