The Good Needs Friends

There are over 3billion people on the planet who are living on less than $2.50 a day. Every time I share this statistic with potential investors or collaborators or friends, they go yeah, that is true but how will you do something about it?

There are governments with trillions of dollars and billionaires with all their will and resources and millionaires who give large amounts to charity. There are professors with PhD's who are writing books after decades of research on their theories on how to eradicate poverty. There are politicians who promise to provide jobs to millions if they are elected. There are thousands of super dedicated social workers, but still the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer.

What can I do? I am not rich, I am not super smart, I am not super connected (this blog has 5 followers and my Linkedin profile has under 200 connections and Twitter & Facebook are in their 20's), yet I dream to move the needle, to make an impact on improving the lives of billions. I am in the 10th month of this journey. Here is why I believe even a small guy like me can make a difference - you see, the good needs friends - no one can overcome the challenge alone.

The challenge is SO enormous that it will take everyone to pitch in - beyond nationality, race, religion, political spectrum, sexual orientation, ideological framework, class or caste, for profit companies and non-profit, Government or Non-Government organizations, everyone to do something about it.

The second point is that I believe that our focus has to be create JOBS for the bottom of the pyramid. With jobs comes dignity and ability to support a family responsibly, get medical attention if required, get shelter and most importantly produce something which is of use to the society. Having a Job allows a person to believe in sustainability much more; more peaceful neighborhoods (there is a direct correlation between inner city unrest and youth unemployment); more education opportunities for the young families.

That is what we are building with majamba - a social network that will make people who want to do good super successful. majamba means to give something insignificant away for the greater good.

What do consumers want?

Yesterday, Dr. Fyfer invited me to present the latest on the "majamba story" amongst other things to the students at the Business School Lausanne (BSL). For those who do not know - BSL is leading the charge for management innovation in Switzerland and perhaps continental Europe. The students are experienced and the professors combine business practice with theory by inviting people who are in the trenches to share their experience (that's why I was there).

After I presented majamba and what we are building and our goals, I opened up for discussion. And the response was awesome!

The BSL folks sliced and diced up the majamba business model to get to the core. And I realized that what consumers really want is to directly help people who need help. And anyone who is able to build a platform that allows the "rich" to support the "poor" directly is going to be able to do good.

That's it - it's that simple. So once again thank you Dr. Fyfer and I think the name of your student was Martin. Martin, thank you!

making sense of it all

I am trying to make sense of the what's happening in the world right now. More specifically in the world of entrepreneurship. And even more specifically in the world of Internet Start-ups.

Here is my take: The Doer's are winning!

The thinkers - Economists, Philosophers, Strategists, Consultants, Architects...have to learn from the Developers, Designers, Activists and other Action oriented people.

Social media is dominated by people who get things done; they do and then they talk. Dreaming, postulating, imagining, or just talking & powerpointing is being pushed to the back seat.

So is this the end of the road for the thinkers?

First of all, I must come clean (as you may know), I am an economist who made his living as a strategist for fourteen years before becoming an entrepreneur last year. I would certainly like to think that thinkers have a place in our world.

So here is what we need to do, my dear fellow thinkers - learn from your friends: The doer's. Learn how they focus on getting things done, not just talking about it. Imagine the impact of combining thinking with doing, you know the oriental saying "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare".

I am now - together with Alex & Jeannine and thanks to my friends Noel, Tom & Joe - focussing on building majamba to be of more use to our members. We will make majamba more relevant to our members. This is going to be a journey of continuous learning, meeting new people, new friends, new ideas, re-establishing old relationships, sharpening our pure vision (support people who want to do good, become super successful) and most importantly improve continuously - hence the name of this journey is "KAIZEN".

Tell me why?

the other day I heard one of my favorite songs – Tell me why? by Genesis.

Here is how it starts…

Mothers crying in the street
Children dying at their feet, tell me why, ooh tell me why
People starving everywhere
There’s too much food but there’s none to spare,
Tell me why, oh tell me why

...

If there’s a God, is he watching
can he give a ray of hope
so much pain and so much sorrow
tell me what does he see
when he looks at you
when he looks at me
what would he say
cos it seems there’s no-one listening

...

Then I thought what was the defining insight from a major conference in a little Swiss village – inflation of commodity prices. In other words, food prices are going up. OK after many days of parties, that was the declaration!

You know we can do better than this! So what is the solution: the solution, my friends is when everyone starts making small changes in their lifestyles and starts to think about others. Think about it, income disparity is increasing. Unemployment & Hunger by themselves are not the root cause of revolution and destruction. Revolutions happen when a few control wealth and continue to grow richer at the expense of other. When the powerful neuter any dissent. Then the pressure builds up and the lid is blown up. For peace and prosperity, we need to change ourselves. How can we do this? We hope to present a small step forward on the 14th of February, the majamba beta version.

majamba.com is live!

After many weeks of planning, refining, presenting, refining, aligning, developing, designing, writing yesterday we saw the site go live! In the next month, we will be polishing the site based on customer feedback.

Check out - http://majamba.com

a very soft launch

On the 20th of December, we will be revealing majamba.com

Be the first to know email alpha@majamba.com for a personal invitation.

We are starting to get ready for the launch

The logo shows eight people in a circle preparing for something that will have a positive impact on our world!

Design, Development & Dancing with the Devil

You know, starting a company is hard work. However, it is a lot easier when you get to collaborate with really knowledgeable, straightforward and fun people. That's where we are - we are now a week away from freezing the "skeleton" of the web platform. Now for completing the skeleton, one has to visualize what one wants in the end and then go backwards, into the deep end, into the details, where the devil is. This my friends, is the tough part of the journey.