Jun 13, 2017
5 Lessons Learned From Raising $50k And Building A School For Children In Laos
At the end of last year, the Addicted2Success community went beyond learning about personal development and entrepreneurship, and raised $50,000 USD through Pencils of Promise. It was time to see what we all could achieve together.
Led by Joel Brown’s generosity, we all reached into our pockets and decided to be bold. We went on social media and tirelessly promoted the campaign. We spread the message to everyone we knew without caring whether they thought we were crazy or not.
Every day we have the opportunity to do something for someone else without being asked to. Don’t wait to be asked, just go and support a cause you believe in without seeking anything in return. The more you give of yourself, the more you become, and the more you grow.
The five lessons you can learn from what the Addicted2Succes community did, through building a school in Laos are:
1. Each of us becomes inspired
When we see communities get together to create change, it inspires each of us individually. Raising money for a school in Laos demonstrates that ripple effects can be created from these positive events. People who sat by and watched our campaign occur on Pencils Of Promise without joining in were still inspired.
“For purpose campaigns cause a ripple effect in the world that somewhere along the line will create a tidal wave of positivity” — Tim Denning
Some of those people who didn’t join in, have since told me that what the A2S community did has inspired them to see what they can do themselves. It has shown people that anyone from anywhere can do something good for complete strangers.
No amount of success will give you the feeling you’re looking for unless you inspire other people. For purpose causes like our Pencils Of Promise campaign seem to inspire an astonishing number of people on social media.
Every time I talk about building a school in Laos on any of the social media platforms, these posts seem to spread like wildfire. The reason is that people just want to be inspired. When life is not going so well, all each of us really needs is an event like this one to lift us out of a rut.
By reading the story, there is no possible way you could not feel good about what we have all achieved. Don’t let the story end here. Inspiration without action is pointless. What can you do to create positive change in the world and replicate the impact of our Pencils Of Promise Campaign?
2. Money is not the only currency
Again, with Joel leading the way, outside of his own generous donations, he showed all of us that money is not the only currency. If you don’t have the money to impact and inspire others, then you can always use your skills and talent.
Joel used his skills to provide value to other people and then all he asked in return was for them to donate some money to the A2S campaign. This worked really well, and it’s a strategy that all of us can use to create more positivity and prosperity in the world.
3. Children are given a chance to dream
What you can learn from the A2S campaign is that giving money to build a school is not about the construction of a building as such; it’s about the chance to let children dream. A comfortable and safe environment to learn is the enabler to allow children who have nothing, to dream.
It’s an educational demonstration to the Laos children that people care and that the universe wants them to succeed. It shows the children the power that entrepreneurs can have in making a difference.
If a simple blog about personal development and entrepreneurship, created by a man from Perth named Joel Brown, using a free tool like WordPress, can grow to millions of followers and raise $50,000 USD to build a school, then what else might be possible?
4. Four walls and a washroom can be more powerful than we think
When you break it down, the money that we raised is enabling the local community in Laos to construct four walls and a washroom. The structure is incredibly simple, yet its impact is widespread. It’s inspiring the local community, the country of Laos, and all the countries including Australia and the USA that helped raise the $50,000.
The four walls and the washroom allow the children to be inside together, away from the weather, to learn about what their life’s purpose will become. Over their time at the school, they will learn all the skills to create their own success, and they will have many mentors, and members of the A2S community visit them.
“Many of us sit at home amongst our own four walls and next to our washroom, and we think that we are not enough”
We fall for the myth that we need all these shiny new things if we ever want to be successful. We somehow think that we don’t have the resources to start something of our own and that we can never have an impact.
This is not true. By seeing what the A2S community has done it should be obvious to you by now that you are more powerful than you think. It’s not about you individually it’s about how you can lead a group of people to do something that matters like Joel has.
The children are not the only people that benefit from this new school; the local village benefits too. When Pencils Of Promise raise money to build a school, they allow the local village in the area to physically build the structure. This gives the townspeople valuable work experience.
Often it’s the workers building the school whose children get to attend once it’s finished. It demonstrates to the construction workers that their hard work can also create good in the world and that they are more influential than they think.
It teaches the construction workers to work as a team and trust one another rather than resort to violence to solve challenges. When the school is finished, these workers get to watch their kids go to school each day and know that they enabled this to happen.
Even after the children finish school, the construction workers get to see the next generation get the benefit from their labor of love. The flow on effects from building a school like this reach so far and wide it’s hard to cover all the areas affected in one blog post.
5. Entrepreneurs unite
The majority of the contributors to this A2S Pencils Of Promise campaign were entrepreneurs. The goal of entrepreneurship is to build products and services that make the world better in some small way.
It’s then the goal of entrepreneurship to take these resources (money) and use them to help other people in developing countries to do the same. As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to become isolated and get lost in your own business.
What our campaign did was unite entrepreneurs all around the globe to get together for a common cause. Companies like Microsoft got involved and showed that even though they have been around for decades, they too can still make a change.
I personally learned that when entrepreneurs collectively put their energy towards something, success can be achieved a lot faster. The A2S campaign was only running for a matter of weeks, and we doubled our target, and our impact without even trying.
Originally posted on Addicted2Success.com
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