GENEROSITY AND ENTREPREN
GENEROSITY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP – BASIL SPRINGER COLUMN WHICH APPEARED IN THE BARBADOS ADVOCATE’S BUSINESS MONDAY ON JUNE 18, 2012
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” – Luke 6:38
We human beings are blessed with many divine powers of spiritual strength including the spirit of generosity. If we are attuned to the spirit of generosity, we give from the spirit of God within us. The Divine promise is that if we give of our time, material resources, talents and skills, we shall be blessed in return. Our mantra therefore may be “I have within me the abundance of Spirit. I am rich with the gifts of God, and I shall share freely from this unlimited source of good. I shall graciously accept my blessing in return”.
We have all been blessed with the God-given resource of 24 hours in every day. The challenge is: how do we apportion this time resource to achieve an optimal balance between obtaining inner peace through the maintenance of mind, body and soul; earning our living; and helping others?
It is important to allocate time to our holistic health because without this we shall be no good to ourselves or others. We must engage in some gainful pursuit, either seek a job or free oneself up and get involved in some entrepreneurial activity. Helping others brings good feelings to the giver and the receiver of the good deeds. Give and it shall be given to you.
Some human beings and corporations have been blessed with a plethora of financial resources. The challenge is: how do we apportion these financial resources to achieve an optimal balance between obtaining inner peace through the maintenance of mind, body and soul; earning our living; and helping others?
We must invest in our holistic health. We must invest for secure return in preparation for the days when we may not be able to earn our living in the customary sense. We must adopt a culture of venture capital investment, however small, which may help entrepreneurs grow the economy. Give and it shall be returned to you.
Despite this, the art of helping others in the context of voluntarism and helping others in terms of venture capital investment is not very well developed in the Caribbean.
The challenge which I would like to discuss is how we apply these principles in the spirit of entrepreneurial development which is the biggest opportunity for economic growth in this day and age, in particular. We should begin with the question “What are the needs of an entrepreneur”?
In the last two weeks I have been engaged in no fewer than 20 interactive dialogue sessions either with individuals, groups (large and small) in either a face-to-face, Skype, telephone or video conferencing environment. Very few of these interactions were associated with existing contracts which may be classified as gainful pursuits; some were associated with potential gainful pursuits; yet others were entrepreneurs who were about to get involved in some entrepreneurial activity and needed help. I attempted to assist this last category.
I must record that there seems to be a large number of inventors and innovators in the Barbadian marketplace who are thinking outside of the box and coming up with innovative entrepreneurial ideas for establishing a business. One couple told me last Saturday that they were longing for the day when they could resign from their day jobs and embark full time in their enterprise to gain control over their time and not be beholden to the rigid hours imposed in their current environment. They were fully aware that a shift from a day job to running a business could very well be more demanding on their total time, since the buck stops with them. They were prepared for this.
I have been having fun with the development of my new business management matrix tool which maps the combination of the five systems of business and the five functions of management to produce the 25 cells of a 5×5 matrix. This I have introduced as a diagnostic (gap analysis) and action planning tool with much gratifying feedback.
In my interactive sessions with start-up entrepreneurs, as is now my wont, I introduce my new business management matrix tool as part of my triaging process (to borrow from a medical analogy) where I determine the priority advice to the entrepreneur based on the severity of the gaps in the 25 cells of the business management matrix.
It is amazing the level of ignorance which is displayed by budding entrepreneurs who have good ideas but no knowledge of business management and no access to money.
We need more generous individuals to partner with the businesses in this shepherding process. If partners can boast of tenets such as a Shared Vision, Cultural Diversity, a Code of Ethics, Longevity, Loyalty, Transparency, Equity, Fair Play, Trust and Values, then we may define the relationship as a Smart Partnership. Initially, the shepherds will have to give, but in the context of a smart partnership, it shall be given to you in the fullness of time.
We need more investors to be involved in the venture capital investment process. Initially, the investor will see no returns on his investment, but in the fullness of time the investment shall be returned in abundance. The security for the return is the CBET Shepherding Modelâ„¢ where Shepherding mitigates the risk of business failure and therefore enhances the return on investment for the investor. Â (Dr. Basil Springer GCM is Change-Engine Consultant, Caribbean Business Enterprise Trust Inc. – CBET – Columns are archived at www.cbetmodel.org).