If the Shoe Fits: Doing Well by Doing Good
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
Have you ever had something you were aware jump up and hit you in the face? It’s not new information and your reaction is the same, but the impact is enormous?
That is what’s happening to me as I read Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual (I’ll be reviewing it next Thursday, December 22)
Maybe it’s just the entrepreneurs Branson talks about, but their goals seem so different from the entrepreneurs in the US.
The “already done it”entrepreneurs in Branson’s book grew up, as did Branson, with an eye to improving the world and knowing that they needed to a financial base from which to do it, but they never lost track of their main goal.
The current entrepreneurs he describes, many of them young, have a keen focus on creating jobs and improving their communities and see their company as a way to accomplish that.
They buy whole-heartedly into Branson’s basic idea for running Virgin, i.e., doing good is good for business.
Whereas a large segment of US entrepreneurs, especially the younger ones, seem to see their startups as the fastest way to get rich since the financial, consulting and legal sector jobs dried up.
Obviously, not all of them, but a significant number.
“Doing well by doing good” just isn’t mainstream in the US.
Or is it?
Where do you fit?
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Flickr image credit: HikingArtist
December 19th, 2011 at 1:53 pm
I love the concept of “doing well by doing good”. I hope it does become more mainstream in the future in the U.S.
December 19th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
You and me, both, Julie. If you want to read stories of it in action read Branson’s book Screw Business As Usual. The stories are amazing.
December 22nd, 2011 at 1:17 am
[…] As promised last Friday. […]