 Buy1GIVE1Free - B1G1 | | Hello
When I said I was writing a newsletter, a business advisor said to me that it could become a waste of time because these days nobody reads newsletters. He also said we had to write it specifically to attract people using certain words and headings and so on. It sounded like hard work.
I thought about why we may not read what we receive these days. I then realised I also only read what I wanted to know or what was relevant to me. Nothing is relevant to everybody... Is it really so? What if we all wanted the very same thing? ... As I travelled around the world and asked people what they really wanted, the answers were all quite different. Some said "money", "success", "a better job" and others said "a life partner", "a child", "freedom". And there were many more.
But is it really all these things? It seems the moment we get ‘it’, we are already wanting something else. So what do we all want?
Isn’t it actually 'happiness'?
Don't we just want to feel happy by having those things?
Buy1GIVE1Free is all about creating joy and sharing it with others. And as a result, we do naturally get what we want. When we know that we can give and share something of value with others, we feel happy. And by sharing the joy with our friends and family, our customers, our team members and others, we get to give more and we create more smiles. Having and giving more become even more joyful. | And imagine if you are the one who can transform the world - every second, every day and in every way.
And imagine if you really are the one who can transform the world - right now.
So, go to it. Read on. Become part of the story.
And enjoy!
Masami Sato - Founder, B1G1 |  | | | | | Call for Change | 
Previously known as 1-1 Card, it's now called B1G1 Card | | When we asked Wilson Ong from Ultimate Communications (one of the B1G1 Business Partners), why he chose to become a social entrepreneur, he said one thing we will not forget.
"One of the major things about success in life is to sow seeds to benefit others." | Wilson and Bong started their phone card company in Singapore 6 years ago. While both of them are from the telecommunication industry, Wilson is a Singaporean and Bong is from Indonesia.
When Bong found out about Buy1GIVE1Free, they immediately became a B1G1 Business Partner and launched their new phone card within 6 weeks. The card used to be called 1-1 card (because it is connecting one person to another). Now it is called the B1G1 (buy one give one) card. | | Bong’s a successful entrepreneur. He always believed in giving back. However, he had never really felt right about the ‘charity’ thinking. |  | When he got to know that ‘Buy1GIVE1Free giving’ was not just about giving something away but it was about creating more for all, it finally made total sense to him. For him, ‘business’ was the real way for the transformation.
Now, every B1G1 card we buy sends one underprivileged Indonesian child to school for a day.
Although he’s implementing Buy1GIVE1Free contribution into a product that has a very low margin, Bong is totally confident about his decision. So much so that he tells literally every business person he knows about his passion for Buy1GIVE1Free.
“I just know B1G1 works for any business. It is a simple idea that has the power to transform the world.” Dijuruanto Tardjiono Bong | | | | ‘Changing The World’ To ‘Sharing The JOY Of Giving’ | Have you noticed the tag-line of Buy1GIVE1Free has been changed from ‘Changing the World’ to ‘Sharing the JOY of Giving’? It seems a subtle change. But for B1G1, it was a massive transformation.
One day, earlier this year, we were talking about ‘Effective Giving’ so that we can make your giving more effective with B1G1. And the question of how we can make it more effective led to an ‘interesting’ discussion. We have seen organisations fight and confront to make a difference. But often when there is a fight, there remains a conflict. ‘Winning-end’ and ‘losing-end’ both create the conflict. So not surprisingly, we didn’t make much progress in our discussions that day.
Then, we were at Mahatma Gandhi’s 60th commemoration in Delhi in January. When we talked about how Gandhi created the incredible transformation people thought impossible, his words woke us up. | | “Be the change you want to see in the world” | Did he say, “Change the world”?
No, he said “BE the change”...
He really was the one who became the change. And the world changed. He did not fight back. So, it means, if we want to see peace, we are to BECOME the peace instead of trying to make it. If we want to see happiness, we are to BE happy first before trying to make someone feel happy...
At the end of the day, we never know how ‘effective’ things can be. We cannot create an external judgement on someone else’s value or life. So, what about focusing on being happy, feeling happy and sharing the joy of ‘giving’ to see even more smiles? Both long-term and right now.
When we recently interviewed Mr Hamzah who works with Rahmania Foundation in Ache, Indonesia, the same message came up again. | | “We are not just giving something away, even though we do provide
some basic need items to people when there is extreme shortage and suffering. But ultimately, we empower them and educate them so they can also give back.
Giving creates the real sense of joy and satisfaction.” | 
Mr Hamzah from Rahmania Foundation - B1G1 Phone Card supports their projects | How much can we share today? How much are we enjoying what we do right now?
We are all here to live life full of happiness and harmony.
Then let’s BE it! | | | | | A New CSR - Customer Social Relationship Program | When the world is flooded with information, hearing something new does not make us feel so excited any more. When a large company presents a big cheque on the stage to announce the good things ‘they’ do, we do not feel as inspired as seeing a smile of someone we helped on the street.
Let’s see how we can transform our thinking from “The world is full of issues, so corporates have to become socially responsible” (Corporate Social Responsibility Program) to “Now we all want to feel that we make a difference. We want to feel connected and we want to make others feel happy while having what we want to have ourselves.” That’s a Customer Social Relationship Program!
Having a moving experience is a memory of a lifetime while having ‘information’ could quickly become a memory of the past life. We move with the memory of a lifetime but we leave the past life behind.
How can we be more and more creative in everything we do? Einstein once said “Imagination is everything”. Then, can we imagine how it would be to bring more heart into business. | If imagination IS everything, we can imagine a happy business that inspires everyone it touches.
And that is truly transformational. |  | | | | | Feeling Good? | You may already have heard the story of Nicky Meehan (who is known as the ‘Muesli Lady’ in Queensland, Australia). So we thought you would enjo~y reading this message from Nicky. It beautifully illustrates the impact B1G1 giving is making on the feeling of many of the business owners who integrate B1G1 into their businesses.
“ My giving involvement with B1G1 is more for my personal goals, than for use as a marketing tool. Having said that, my profile everywhere has increased significantly. Thanks for all the mentions in articles - it has brought me well up the ranks on Google.
The wonderful thing I feel has happened since B1G1 is there is a subtle new 'feeling' to everything. My helpers seem to take more care with the preparation. When I need help in my kitchen my staff willingly offer to help. Generally my clients make comments along the lines that they 'FEEL GOOD' knowing they're making a contribution. Let's face it, we all like to feel good, don't we?
As importantly I FEEL GOOD, my bank account LOOKS GOOD too. Hurrah!
People at the market also make a point of sharing with me their own Social Enterprise involvement/giving, which is great. There’s a wonderful revolution in giving and we’re all involved. How wonderful. | GO TO IT EVERYONE!! GET GIVING!!”
Nicky Meehan, Maple Muesli, Australia | 
7 year old Georgia now feeds a child in India | | | And like the little girl, Georgia, who got inspired by the fact she can feed a child by eating Nicky’s Muesli (every packet of muesli feeds a child), many others now resonate with Nicky’s vision of making a difference with every business transaction every day. No matter how small or large our business is, we can all make a difference. | | | | Zippers To Give Work And Self-esteem | So often we think we have got to do something big, otherwise there is no point. And we tend to ‘wait’ until we can do something big... forever.
What if a small thing can transform the world - right now?
When we were visiting a small village near a town called Satna in India, we noticed something. Something so small that we may have never noticed if we were only focused on what we were doing.
We were interviewing the villagers and visiting their houses. The tough reality of the bone-dry wells and very basic houses with no toilet or shower was very obvious to us. So we started to discuss about how we can bring in more resources to these villages while providing more work. “Maybe we can do Buy1Give1 wells” or “what about Buy1Give1 toilets”.
Things people complain about are so easy to focus on, while the things we do not even think about, can provide a simple answer. |   | So, what comes up to your mind?
The children did not say they wanted their zippers fixed. But we saw them pulling the dress up again and again as they ran and tried to get into the pictures we were taking. Once we noticed, we started to see it everywhere. Almost ALL the girls had a dress with a broken zipper...
This clearly is a opportunity for us as we believe everything we see is an oppor~tunity to share the jo~y of giving at Buy1GIVE1Free. | So, here is a fun challenge for you.
How can we help fix those zippers while creating the sustainability and self-esteem with a small thing like a zipper? Maybe a large clothing brand can be part of this... or you can do something?
We do not try to ‘solve’ problems here, we create more jo~y in our life by being as creative as we can. |  | | | And it is your turn to share your idea. Because you can be the one to create smiles on those children’s faces. | | | | Our Perception Is Creating ‘Rich’ And ‘Poor”...? | Finally, there is one video we would love you to watch. It was filmed at Delhi Railway Station one early morning in February.
So why would you watch it? Because it answers many of the questions we have about giving in the most surprising of ways. In the short film with a very simple message, we just see how we are the ones creating our world. And if there are such things as ‘Rich’ and ‘Poor’, then we also create that reality. Click on the image below. | | | | Tell us your thoughts about it after watching it and feel free to share it with others. When we all see the message in it, we see the world transform.
Your world and our world. Thank you for reading this newsletter. And thank you for givingus a joyful experience to write it. We look forward to having YOUR stories in the up-coming issues. | | | | | Welcome to the world of Buy1GIVE1Free - B1G1 | | | |
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