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The Core Principles To World Changing Social EntrepreneurshipJune 30

This is a guest post by social entrepreneur Bobby Srivastava. I’ve known Bobby since college and he’s been focused on the social services since then. Bobby was the founding COO of  a KIPP school, and heavily involved in CPY4Youth, College Summit, and the Taproot Foundation. His insights to what it takes to be a successful social entrepreneur are right on. As he humbly calls himself a “fly on the wall”, he’s much more hands on as a board member and founder than he’ll admit. He’s one of the guys who are making big things happen with little resources, and making the world a better place.

Enter Bobby…

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I’ve realized after working with so many individuals within the nonprofit sector that we have encountered an unprecedented era where individuals are not waiting around anymore to start ventures that will soon change the world. Social Entrepreneurship is booming – people are putting their dreams into action, and scouring the community and the world to try and find ways to a

How To Take A Vacation: A Lesson (Learned) From EuropeansJune 27

Vacation is important because…

Vacation, as the Europeans have discovered, is critical to ones ability to contribute effectively in the workplace. As I’m in Sweden this week and our project time lines are surely impacted by month long (or more) vacation schedules, I figured there would be no more appropriate time to write about vacations and the value of them.

Note: This trip is for business and not a vacation, however, I am spending a free weekend in Stockholm. A mini vacation I guess.

Although the “American way” seems to criticize the European vacation mentality, I think that it may be important to consider the value of extended breaks for multiple reasons.

1. Taking a break allows one to recollect their focus and return to work with a laser focus on their work.
2. A vacation allows one to recharge their batteries, release the pressures that can build at work, and return energized and excited.
3. Taking a vacation, perhaps a luxurious one, gives you a sense of reward and helps you to feel really good about giving 110% to your work.

Don’t focus on refocusing.

It’s important that when taking a vacation you don’t think �

Investing Yourself and The Value of Strong RelationshipsJune 25

I’ve been working in Uppsala, Sweden, about 45 minutes north of Stockholm, this week and have learned a few very valuable business lessons. I was lucky to have the opportunity to travel when most other travel opportunities have been cut, and I’ve really focused on making the most of the trip.

Coming into the week I wanted to focus on really investing myself fully into the deliverables that I’d committed to in order to justify the trip and also through building relationships that are critical in order to successfully execute on the project in the future. With those two focuses in mind, I’ve learned quite a lot and have, I think, succeeded in both.

Investing Yourself Emotionally

Many times, at home, I have so many different projects going that I struggle to focus on one thing at a time. With work priorities, project interests, family obligations, and finally lowest on the priority list, personal time, it becomes tough to balance and focus on any one of the tasks. This week, being away from home, I decided to completely remove myself and focus on work whole heatedly. The results have been phenomenal.

When you’re traveling for business you travel with people who you basically have one thing i

My First Day In SwedenJune 21

Arrival

I arrived on the red-eye from Newark, NJ at 7:40am local time. My driver (it’s not as fancy as it sounds) was waiting and when I jumped in the cab the first thing he did was blow into a breathalyzer. I was thrown off by this but I appreciated the confidence I felt from his sobriety. The driver either spoke minimal English or he just didn’t like the looks of me, either is quite possible after getting about 3 hours of sleep on the flight. I won’t hold it against him.

During my 30-40 minute drive from Arlanda Airport out to Uppsala my initial reactions to Sweden are clean & green. It’s a beautiful country and everything seems brand new. From their automobiles, to their infrastructure, it’s seems “refreshed”. I expected the opposite. There is a lot of history here but it seems their has been a large investment in the country in recent years.

The People

Stockholm, in my observations, is a very affectionate city. There are couples everywhere and they sure don’t mind showing off their love for each other. My fiance calls it PDA (public display of affection) and the Swede’s love i

Identifying An Audience: This Ain’t For EveryoneJune 18

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s brilliant book, Tribes, over the past week. One of Godin’s theories in the book, that I definitely buy into is the importance of carving a niche with your message. A Tribe by Godin’s definition is a tightly interacting group of people, bound by a special interest. His call to action is for “you” to be the leader of that tribe. It’s time for “you” to step up. He also notes, about tribes, that if they’re too broad they will be diluted and never really operate optimally, or have any real impact on the world. The leaders message, if broad, will be lost with all the other broad messages. It’s the same issue as we’ve all read about before on the web, the signal vs. noise paradox.

In order to avoid getting lost among the others, I thought it would be appropriate to define the types of individuals that I think have enjoyed THE DREAM IN ACTION so