Wednesday, July 10, 2013

You Say Competitor, We Say Collaborator: Why International Development is Unique

by Grameen Foundation
By Kimberly Davies. Cross-posted from Kiva.
Many industries view similar or related organizations as competitors. I’d like to think that the international development industry is unique in viewing others as collaborators. Since everyone in this industry is working toward a common goal -- poverty alleviation -- everyone is constantly looking for ways to share findings and learn from each other. Our biggest concern is reaching a common, hugely important mission. Since this desire outreaches any other concerns, proprietary material often does not exist. Discussing failures is encouraged. This may be counterintuitive to impressing funders, but luckily nowadays usually is not the case.
My first job was with Freedom from Hunger, an organization that would commonly state that “our goal is to put ourselves out of business.” They wanted to end world hunger and make themselves obsolete. How many other industries can you say are full of people working around the clock to try to put themselves out of a job?
Grameen Foundation and Kiva have similar passions. They have partnered for many years in a number of ways to support each other as well, from leveraging funds to volunteers. Last week, we hosted our first joint learning session in San Francisco, aimed to share learnings and product information from our own organizations and that of our partners. We focused on the need for good financial products, practices to build the right products, enabling environments required for success, and shared a number of very cool product examples. In this short blog series, we’d like to share some of the key items discussed at that event, and are interested to get your feedback.
Grameen Foundation | July 10, 2013 at 5:40 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/paqcE-Gg

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Stress,insomnia,anxiety & depression the main causes of illness for billions.

me
Hi Balakrishnan,
 
We're sending this out to all our subscribers and customers and wanted 
to make sure you're in the loop too.
 
At Mindvalley, our mission is to find new ways to elevate the planet and 
help people live truly epic lives.
 
Sometimes this means teaching people how to meditate to attain greater 
spiritual peace, or teaching holistic health to extend our lifespans. 
 
Often it means teaching you how to become an entrepreneur or build amazing 
relationships with your friends or loved ones.
 
And the list goes on...
 
But we've also come to realize that for millions of people worldwide - none 
of these matter. Leading epic lives is far off in the horizon - simply because 
one of four different situations keep them from simply living life normally.
 
What are these four situations?
 
The first is chronic stress. Millions of people suffer from it. And when you're 
stressed about your daily living - moving towards a more epic life is not your 
first priority. That first priority is simply to end stress.
 
Millions more suffer from insomnia. If you have trouble sleeping, all the other 
course provided by Mindvalley may not be your biggest priority right now. 
 
Your big priority might simply be to sleep well tonight.
 
And then there are people suffering from chronic anxiety and panic attacks.
 
And others who have what might seem the most difficult of all. Depression.
 
In America today, statistically speaking, 90% of people suffer from one of 
these 4 problems - with stress being the most common. 
 
And that's why our latest program from Mindvalley is NOT about helping you 
lead an epic life. It's about helping you lead a normal, healthy life. A life free 
from stress, insomnia, anxiety or depression.
 
What we've come to realize, through the work of this new author we're bringing 
to the world, is that the solution to ALL four is fairly similar. 
 
We call it "Live Vibrantly"
 
And so we'd love to invite you to experience Vibrantly if any of these 
conditions are keeping you from fully living a vibrant life. 
 
Vibrantly is now available to all Mindvalley subscribers like you for an 
introductory student fee and a 90 day trial. 
 
 
So if you think that stress, depression, insomnia or anxiety could potentially 
be the stumbling blocks to your progress, or if you're tired of not being able 
to reach the level of potentials that you always wanted....
 
We recommend you to give this program a try. 
 
 
To your epic life,
 
Vishen Lakhiani, 
 
Founder, Mindvalley
 
P.S. "Healing is a matter of time, but its sometimes a matter of opportunity" - Hippocrates.