Today I listened Sheryl Sandberg’s interview of great scale leaders know how to pivot. She says “in this high tech society, every thing changes fast. Great leaders don’t just make plans, they break them.” The words make me think of one of my interviewer said “running a business is just like doing housework. You make sure you put everything in the right order and arrange the time well to get all you work done.” I agree with Sheryl that if people already invented washing machine, we should not insist on arranging people to wash clothes by hands. We should notice the trend and figure out ways that can fit more in the trend.
I also found it is interesting that she said diversity is important to a business. People learn from each other and influence each other through interact with different people. In Chinese, there is a idiom: “if three walk together, one can be my teacher” (from the Analects of Confucius) No matter what kind of people, they must have their Specialties for us to learn.
After listening to her interview, I found out that I should be more open to the possibilities for my solutions. I farmed myself to the think of the “Plan” and didn’t want to break it. That caused I was too focused on “how to make hand wash more efficient” instead of how we can use a washing machine effectively.
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I never thought of developing a non-profit business. As I know, starting to develop a business requires a huge financial support. And, if the finance is not put in the right direction, it is very likely that the business will become unsustainable. However, after listening to Nancy’s podcast, I noticed that the non-profit business converts materials into funds from a variety of perspectives. It is a very smart point I’ve never thought! I am not support to turn any key resources into finance cost.
In my mind, I feel that asking for help from others will bring troubles for others, so I am not asking for help until I cannot handle the problems. However, I ignored that ”I am willing to help if someone else is asking for help.” In the podcast, I understand the words: “The rule we underestimated is people hunger and desire to be helpful.” I remembered one of my friends told me that: ”people are creating their value in order to be used by others” I think that may be why people like to help because it is a way to proof their value.
Go back to my business ideas, I need to clear what my mission is. I believe my mission is to bring social changes for women to be more successful in their career. If my career is based on non-profit, it will be good for me to start building a positive circle for the volunteers and the requesters. And how I “keeping people are making these requests” will be my task to keep this circle turning.
Besides, I believe that non-profit organizations are also profitable in the end. Think about the advertising revenue of Facebook!