I received an email just before Christmas. In part it said, “…. 2009 has been a horrible year — can’t wait for 2010.” You may have heard something similar. And normally I’d just write back ‘Happy New Year’. But when I got the original message it struck me how our lives have little to do with the year. Or, to put it another way, how much ‘the year’ has to do with us, not the other way around!

 Another friend, Tim Fernandez in Kuala Lumpur , put it this way: ‘The year has been somewhat extraordinary. The reason, not only because of the many things that have come to manifest themselves – I would say it was extraordinary for the simple reason that we’ve reached out to many and created possibilities.

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At Buy1GIVE1 (or B1G1 as most people know it now) we’ve got a clear mission — to create a world full of giving. And we do that through providing people with the wonderful process of transaction-based giving — increasingly being called, 'Embedded Generosity' or 'Embedded Giving'.

I find that creating a world full of giving is pretty inspiring. Then I got a note taking it all to another level from my friend (and B1G1 Business client) Tom Minter in the UK. Tom co-founded and co-runs the wonderfully zany and magically brilliant ‘Socks for Happy People ’.

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Every day I’m in the gym early in the morning. And I find it tough whether it’s 25 minutes at level 6 on the stepper or 40 minutes on the treadmill at a 15 incline. Then there’s the ‘core’ exercises afterwards. Sweaty. Puffing. And tough.

But I’m fortunate to share the gym with Buy1GIVE1 (B1G1) founder Masami Sato. Yesterday she asked me to take a look at my face.

‘Is it hurting?’ she said.

‘Your face looks like it’s in pain and it always does even when you start exercising. Why not try smiling and see what happens,’ she said.

We’ll get back to that in a moment.

Because after the gym yesterday I caught up with some reading. In the Chronicle of Philanthropy I learnt of a survey that ‘verified’ that sad photos of kids in fund-raising campaigns raise more money from donors that happy faces. I find that probably true but sad if you know what I mean.

 

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Here I am on Flight SQ 245 out of Singapore to Brisbane, Australia.

And in meeting after meeting last week in Singapore I really started toget how wonderfully important this 4-word phrase ‘ Less communication –more connection’ really is.

One is about presence – the other is not.

Right now I’m experiencing the presence piece on the Singapore Airlines flight. Singapore Airlines is absolutely my favourite airline. They get ‘connecting’. From the simple use of my name at every possible point to the simple and gracious way they seem to give. This is not a job – it’s an opportunity

Several times a week it seems we have the question asked, “so when we give, what do we get?’

The question is rarely asked precisely that way. More often than not it comes out like this: ‘so when I give through B1G1 , does it impact my sales; do more people buy from me?’

And perhaps not surprisingly with my marketing background I sometimes want to scream ‘of course!’ I’m eager to tell people about the impact giving has in all sorts of ways. I want to quote the stories of B1G1 businesses. I want to talk about how giving develops much more ‘connection’. And I know the Duke University study backwards (the study that showed as much as a 74% ‘uptick’ in the sales of products directly linked through transaction-based giving).

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Some reports suggest that the micro-blog platform, Twitter, is growing at the rate of 131 per month. That’s huge. As one commentator put it ‘At that pace of growth everyone on the planet will be Twittering by 22 December, 2009’.

And B1G1 is part of that growth too.

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Since I started doing more daily exercises and physical activities, the life has become so much more enjoyable, meaningful and abundant.

I had felt the need for more physical activities before but never done anything consistently since I had my first child. Life can be full of excuses with family/business commitment and demanding everyday chores. But this time, I actually took action.

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Sometimes, we may feel that our individual and everyday activities don’t make much of a difference.

But what if they did? What if people around the world set up their businesses so that every single transaction made a positive difference? What a world that would be; and that is actually the world of Buy One Give One. And it’s now becoming a global movement.

This transaction-based giving movement is now inspiring and transforming our world. It is a new and immediately effective form of philanthropy, serving the worlds poor with practical gifts from every sale.

Several

Although it's small, the impact is huge. Buy1GIVE1 has released a short film that expresses the depth of the message this giving movement carries.

What Are We Looking For?

If you know 'The Law of Attraction', you already know that the key to living the life we want is all about feeling good. But there is something we could miss if our focus is only about visualising and believing in the life we want to lead.

The new movie released from Buy1GIVE1 shows the simple resonance of giving. We will become ever more aware why giving is a crucial part of our lives -- something we are meant to do naturally

Bees are all giving by nature. They give naturally to maintain the world of abundance. But each bee actually takes different role in maintaining the colony as well as the flower garden. So, I thought human beings are the same. We are all naturally giving and caring. But we tend to express our giving in different ways. So, here it is a 'giving bee' chart where you can find your bee type. Watch out for the following bee analysis! The more you share your value as a givine bee, the more we can do together make a difference.

 

On 10th September 2008, a young lady got up at 1 in the morning. She just had to write down an idea. One hour and 20 minutes later she went back to bed with the perfectly finished script of an astonishing film.

Just 3 days later, she’d completely produced, animated and edited the entire film.

On 14th September, she showed it to a group of friends. They were stunned by what they saw.

She called the film ONE. It’s one of the most beautiful and inspiring movies you’ll ever see.

Unlike the phenomenal success of The Secret, ONE doesn't feature 'teachers'. It features ‘ordinary’

Masami Sato was recently interviewed for an Australian women's business magazine, Honestly Woman.

She shared a lot about her business and personal life philosophy that has helped her succeed in her life while caring for a young family.

Click here to view the article.

Click here to view the PDF

Masami Sato, Founder of Buy1GIVE1™ recently expressed her gratitude for being part of a movement that encourages businesses to get creative with how they do business. The power of gratitude, acting as a key driver for this paradigm shift should not be underestimated. Capitalism has provided us with freedom to trade, employ and use money for goods and services in response to a demand. There is definitely gratitude to be found in this.

Bill Gates has become central to this paradigm shift, calling for ‘Creative Capitalism’ in response to the vital question, he shares in TIME Magazine:

How

I believe a management expert once said, ‘What you can measure you can manage’. And then a friend of mine added, ‘But measuring what really matters is the real key!’ And then I read that ‘what get’s measured gets done’.

So today, out of curiosity, I decided to measure my ‘Thank yous’ and found out that I have already said the phrase 36 times and I actually wrote it 23 times.

Wow. It must be the most common phrase