Since I am into the sustainability thing, I am not above “recycling” old material from time to time…especially when new ideas just don’t want to flow…
This morning is one of those times. But have no fear, I have 5 years worth of CRG material to borrow from.
Here’s an old post inspired, as often is the case, by a book…
Just finished reading The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz. Novogratz is the founder of The Acumen Fund, which is a “charitable” venture capital fund. I know that sounds a bit oxymoronic, but her idea is to solicit charitable contributions which are then injected as capital into businesses that bring needed services to poor and developing countries.
The fund “invests” (either through equity or debt infusion) in these businesses. In her view this works better than just donating the money with no accountability attached and she has been proven right many times over. The book chronicles many of those successes.
Reading it I really felt like she was a “kindred spirit.” Many of her experiences I could relate deeply to as someone with an intense degree of capitalistic training who had his “ideals shaken” after spending a considerable amount of time in a developing country.
One of the things that really struck me was Jacqueline’s discussion, I believe in Chapter 8, about the need to combine both love and power in order to really make a difference in this world.
Quoting from Martin Luther King, Jacqueline writes…
Power without love is reckless and abusive, whereas love without power is sentimental and anemic.
A nice tasty morsel to sink your teeth into, eh?
This love and power idea got me thinking about the right balance between the two.
All too often we use our power only to enhance our position…to build our “castle of indifference and insulation.”
The right combination of love and power can greatly facilitate impact.
I like to think of it as a toolbox that contains both “hard” and “soft” tools.
“Hard” tools represent what may (in this harsh real world) give you a leg up over others, even if it is a hard and unfair reality that they do. Things like economic and social status, ethnicity, nationality, education, etc. Hard tools can be acquired, i.e., they are not always simply “born into.”
However, the fact that you might have been born white in the U.S.A. to a wealthy family and have had the privilege to attend the best schools does in fact give you a certain degree of power.
And as always, with that power comes responsibility.
So, the question then becomes, how will you use it?
Then there are “soft” tools, like your compassion, empathy, ability to feel and impart inspiration, eagerness to learn, to help, etc.
Novogratz definitely has a full toolbox and she has used those tools, and continues to use them, with a unique combination of love and power that is making a difference for countless people in remote and often forgotten regions of our world.
image credit: Patrizia Ilaria Sechi via Compfight cc
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