Free Footwear — Funded by Entrepreneurship

Have you heard of TOMS Shoes? If you haven’t, you should probably check them out. It’s hard to hear their story and current mission and not feel inspired.Social Entrepreneurship

The company was founded on a simple premise. For every pair of TOMs shoes you buy, the company will actually place a pair of free shoes on someone who has nothing to protect their feet. What a splendidly simple idea!

Yes, the idea is simple, but there’s power in simplicity. Imagine a sandwich shop that provides lunch to someone who is starving, every time you buy your turkey BLT. Picture bringing the world into focus for a person with a free pair of glasses, which are donated every time you refill your contact prescription.

With all of the entrepreneurial innovation taking place in the business world, it’s easy to see many opportunities in the natural and pure products industry. This movement already has strong support from its active community — with more and more members jumping on board every day. I’m curious to see how the organic and natural manufacturers (and customers) will embrace social entrepreneurship to foster pure, positive change.

Will you be an agent of that change?

“Right livelihood”

Steve Demos, founder of Silk Soymilk (a brand I work with as a marketing consultant) built his business, and rules his career, under a concept he calls “right livelihood.” The video below is 20 minutes – inspiring if you’re into business or interested in responsible corporate practices – but the last 3 minutes includes a message everyone should hear.

Steve sums up the concept of right livelihood as running business in a way that’s “good for me, good for you, good for everyone who touches it.” An incredibly simple, but surprisingly novel ethos. Consider that just about every business school in the country still teaches students that their primary responsibility in business is to return profit to shareholders. Personally, I prefer Steve’s definition of corporate value. And with a $330,000,000 sale price, he proved that one can do well while… doing well.

Watch this.

This 8-minute video is a shocking perspective on the toxicity that surrounds every American family…