4 Powerful Tools for Building a Meaningful Life
Dear Beloved,
I’ve been buried in my computer with my pending book launch for Life by the Cup, but thank God I answered when Cynthia Kersey (www.Unstoppable.net) called and asked me to take Bob Proctor’s place on her panel: Skyrocket your business by being a force for good. I was in great company with Shiza Shahid, the cofounder of the Malala Fund (www.Malala.org) and Martha Adams, the senior producer of the life-changing, world-changing movie Girl Rising (www.Girlrising.com). And since I was crashing at my soul-sister’s house that night, we lasso’d her into the panel too as an executive voice (Kathy Twells–CocaCola).
When women gather, magic occurs. I could literally feel the room fill with light as each woman entered and took her seat for our panel. When Cynthia asked the audience, “How many of you would like to heal and change the world with your business?” 100% of the hands shot up. Beaming faces, open hearts and excitement filled the room.
Shiza spoke about Malala and her fight for education amidst Taliban rule in Pakistan. If you don’t know her story, the Taliban shot Malala in the head on a bus, for being a voice-full advocate for girls’ education, and she survived. In only 18 months, she not only survived the massive head wound, but she re-started school in London, wrote a book about the experience (I am Malala–get it!), forgave her attackers, started a nonprofit fund for educating girls globally and is now nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She refused to let fear overcome her and she is now a beacon for every girl and woman on the planet to get an education–our birthright. Shiza was her mentor in Pakistan and returned to help her when this happened, she left the world of finance to start the Malala Fund with Malala.
Next, Martha Adams spoke about the movement and film: Girl Rising. Educating girls can end the cycle of poverty in one generation. The movie has been seen by millions of people, and the point is to break down the barriers to girls’ education globally because when a girl is educated, she is less likely to suffer from forced youth marriage, gender-based violence and sex trafficking. Boys do not have the same barriers in many countries, and if you educate a girl, you educate everyone around her–parents, children, villages.
I spoke about my experiences with Sage, the tea workers who make $1.35 a day and how the benefits of fair trade can not only end poverty but will if more companies embrace it. I said a lot more (you know by now I have a LOT to say 🙂 but the gist of it was that with a mission to serve, you cannot fail, so serve and your business will inevitably succeed.
The major takeaways, that you can apply to your own life and business are these:
1. Let your voice be heard. Malala spoke up, she suffered a major attack, but now is the light that millions of girls get to see their path to education by. Malala’s courage is now the inspiration for nations, companies and communities to ensure girls’ education is a given, not an exception.
2. Be Yourself. Martha needed funding for Girl Rising. She went to Intel and told them her idea and about the tragedies over girls’ lack of access to education and they not only funded the film, they became her support and market–she got 84,000 believers to love and support her through the process by way of their entire employee pool jumping in to help.
3. Take a Stand: Cynthia Kersey was a highly successful corporate executive who went through a painful divorce. Her mentor said, “Find a purpose greater than your pain and you will heal.” She decided on the number 100. 100 houses would be bigger than her pain, so she went on to build 100 houses in Nepal for those in need through Habitat for Humanity and now is devoted to educating all children globally through the Unstoppable Foundation.
4. Engage your Heart:Â Â My heart was broken over the fact that I couldn’t get health insurance for Sage when he was a newborn because birth defects were considered a “pre-existing condition” so I used the ache in my heart to fuel a personal revolution and build a heart-centered business.
I wonder where you can apply these ideas to your own life, today?
Where might you be holding your voice back for fear of what might happen? If you have a situation, think of what Malala went through for courage.
Where can you “Be Yourself” in pursuing an idea and presenting it to a potential funder or supporter the way Martha did with Girl Rising? It was a man at Intel with daughters who took the project on and made it the massive movement it is.
Where can you take a stand and like Cynthia find a “purpose greater than your pain?”
And where can you engage the courage in your heartache to fuel a change or build a dream?
I invite you to think on these and please comment via our Facebook feed, so that I can hear your ideas…I love the conversations we have and I love you.
With Devotion,
Zhena
