Paying it forward or giving back?
How we’re building a global community
Do you wait until you have it and then “give it back” or do you just pay it forward regardless of “having it”?
In his excellent new book, Three Zeros, zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon, Mohammad Yunus writes: “…. [an] important lesson our young people learn as children is that the fundamental purpose of work is to generate personal income and wealth. We teach them that all other motivations, including unselfish desires such as the drive to help others and to make the world a better place, are of secondary importance and are only to be pursued in one’s “free time,” or to “give back” as a kind of repayment.”
I believe by integrating the unselfish desires into our investment, saving and spending habits we can practically build a culture of paying it forward and not just wait to give back until we have “too much”. Ethical investment portfolios, social businesses and Amazon’s example of purchasing at smile.amazon.com are all methods of implementing this culture.
Givefirst and global community building
Iratel Ventures team admires and practices Brad Feld’s #givefirst culture. In an earlier article I wrote about the wonderful culture of paying it forward in Silicon Valley and how it accelerated our growth and integration into the investment community there.
Our passion is to empower global growth, thinking and execution. Isolation of Iranian businesses for so many years makes this global vision too bold for some, especially at these uncertain times! We believe building global businesses is possible only with a true culture of paying it forward within and among communities.
We’re happy to have built a strong global community with the aim of empowering global entrepreneurs. Without a mentality of givefirst, it will be very difficult to justify what it takes to build this community. We are constantly thinking about ways to improve interaction within the community.
We have quite a few ideas but would love to hear from the community. How should we build and keep these connections strong and effective?
This is the twenty second in a series of posts about our investment criteria and ecosystem resources which was also posted on LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from teams with crazy (but commercial) startups. If you’re looking for funding don’t forget to get your IV Score to prepare for your next VC meeting. If you’re funded and are looking for coaching, start here.
