Global Do.Gooders is a platform that focuses on young social entrepreneurs’ impact and success in social innovation.

One of the initiative is a student social entrepreneur internship program which will be piloting in [...]]]>

Global Do.Gooders’ Pre-Pilot Launch Party is coming up and I have a little more than 2 weeks to put it together.

Global Do.Gooders is a platform that focuses on young social entrepreneurs’ impact and success in social innovation.

One of the initiative is a student social entrepreneur internship program which will be piloting in the Fall. The mission of the internship program is to empower high school students to become the next generation of change leaders and develops their business acumen for social change. This is done in partnership with university student leaders and global businesses that create sustainable social value as part of their business ideology.

Who better to get involved in Global Do.Gooders’ pre-pilot launch party than SAGE?

Do you know SAGE? Do you know Santa Monica SAGE team? If not, they are definitely the organization and group to know. SAGE is a global network of young entrepreneurs, connecting youth and business leaders from Poland, South Korea, Mexico, USA, Zambia, South Africa, and the list goes on.

When I was invited to be a judge at the California regional competition – my first SAGE event – I was blown away by the caliber of today’s youth. Their depth of knowledge, global awareness, public speaking skills, teamwork, energy, enthusiasm, eagerness, and hunger for excellence floored me. Student teams throughout California came together with a purpose to become future business and change leaders. They’ve worked on several commercial and social ventures to meet SAGE’s 10 judging criteria of successful ventures throughout  the academic year to compete in the national competition, in May, and win the USA delegation. Santa Monica SAGE team won the USA competition and will now  compete in SAGE’s annual World Cup competition. This year’s World Cup competition is held in South Africa at the end of July.

Global Do.Gooder’s Pre Pilot Launch Party will be featuring Santa Monica SAGE team’s presentation that they will use for SAGE World Cup competition. Observers will judge and give feedback before the team fly to South Africa to compete. Teri Jones, the SAGE teacher, is hoping that the pre-pilot party will give SAGE students one more opportunity to practice their presentation, in front of social innovators and professional leaders in Los Angeles.

DETAILS:

Friday July 16 4-6pm at Santa Monica High School

I’m still looking for a speaker. Please email me if you’re interested in being a judge, observer, speaker, or want to help out: tlu@thanhdlu.com

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books – especially the Bible, build a shelter against rainy days, give thanks for your blessings, and pray for guidance everyday.

Never try to be better than anyone else, but never cease trying to [...]]]>

Remembering John Wooden…

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books – especially the Bible, build a shelter against rainy days, give thanks for your blessings, and pray for guidance everyday.

Never try to be better than anyone else, but never cease trying to be the best you can be at whatever you’re doing.

Mind map it, like I’ve mind-mapped a YouTube video on How to Spot Disruptive [...]]]>

There is a lot of information that bombards us. A LOT. So how do you retain all that is relevant, interesting, and useful? Underline points in books? Store them in your favorites? Digg it? Post it? Share it? Teach it? Perhaps.

Mind map it, like I’ve mind-mapped a YouTube video on How to Spot Disruptive Innovation. Without retention, a lot of stuff becomes entertainment and takes up space rather than being useful.

Do it, delegate it, delay it, or dump it.

The moment you pick up a piece of paper, decide [...]]]>

When you’re faced with a long to-do list and you need focus and discipline to do what is most impactful, the 4 D’s will help take care of to-do items, courtesy of Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles:

Do it, delegate it, delay it, or dump it.

The moment you pick up a piece of paper, decide then and there whether you’ll do anything with it. If not, dump it. If you can take care of it within 30 minutes, do it immediately. If you still want to take care of it yourself, but know it will take longer, delay it by filing it in a folder of things to do later. If you can’t do it yourself or don’t want to  take the time, delegate it to someone you trust to accomplish the task.

Do not let things settle on the desk or in the mind. Make space for something new, physically and psychologically.

Seth Godin blogs about [...]]]>

The phenomenon of blogs and websites has given rise to free advice that easily flows from people’s personal convictions of how the world works, how people should be behave, interact, and deal in business and life situations. Granted, every blogger wants to deliver value – value is the name of the game.

Seth Godin blogs about how be indispensable in business, work, and life. He tells reader to rise above the order and routine of the status quo, resist against the lizard brain, put yourself out there, and dictate your own life.

Dr. Laura, in addition to her nationally syndicated radio show, blogs to promote the institution of marriage and stay at home mothers and denounces the statehood of feminism and everything that it has destroyed in its path, including family, children, and commitment between husbands and wives.

These public figures, whether in real life or cyber space, in print, on line, or on the air waves, are brave. They are courageous with their beliefs and have strong convictions of who they are, and more specifically why they are correct.

My brother, currently a student of Buddhism, wrote up his knowledge of what he’s been learning from the past two years – about Karma, birth, reincarnation, meditation, internal peace, rightful conduct, the Middle path, etc. He wrote a book because he wanted to teach Buddhism in the way modern young professionals would understand.

I told him he should publish it, at least self publish so that other people could learn and get value from his work. He said no. I asked him “Is it because you don’t have strong convictions in what you’ve written and what you’ve learned?”

He told me “No, that’s not it. I believe in what I’ve written, and I truly believe in what I’m learning. But I’m not ready to defend it yet.”

“Defend it?” I asked.

“Yes, I don’t know what the effect will be from my words and thoughts, if people read my published work. I am not ready to assume the consequence.”

Though I wouldn’t call my brother a coward for not wanting to take the risk, rather, it is his conscious assessment that there are consequences to our “good intentions” and “good advice” we endow onto the world. Although my brother has begun to cultivate his enlightenment, he is still a student and is nowhere close to enlightenment to understand the cause and effect of human life.

And yet, Dr. Laura and Seth Godin, blast the word with their convictions everyday. As as much as they have achieved, as much respect as they deserve, as much good intentions as they have for people, I wonder the consequences and effect to their cause, should someone who listened to them took their advice the wrong way.

Dr. Laura always tell her listeners that they don’t have to listen to her advice, but when they do, they are responsible for their own actions.

Although I typically would agree to individualism, I’m beginning to question the “buyer beware” and “at your own risk” beliefs. The “buyer beware” was what crippled the American economy. No one thought about the other party. We don’t realize that we are all connected. We are all involved, our lives are intertwined into one another – whether we see the tangled webs or not.

In Popes & Bankers, Jack Cashill quoted Bear Stearns’s Friedman about the blame in the financial meltdown, “In truth, it was a team effort. We all f***ed up. Government. Rating agencies. Wall Street. Commercial banks. Regulations. Investors. Everybody.”

Bloggers, writers, advocates, teachers, educators, mentors, consultants, experts – there is a constant battle between courage and consequence, and at the end of the day, we are all sentient.

Courtesy of LA Social Innovators.