Atlas Matters

Just registered with Kiva today, one of several micro-loan organizations.

It really felt good to contribute to someone that is trying to grow their way out of poverty, I know more about who they are and what they are trying to acomplish. I can track and see the results of my investment. I’ve contributed in the past to the usual suspects (large charities) and I always had questions about the use of funds, how much really made it to the target – check out Kiva and/or Microloans, Microcredit.

You might be giving in the future!

Wikipedia states, ”

This article is specific to small loans. For financial services to the poor see Microfinance. For small payments see Micropayment.

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor.

Microcredit is a financial innovation which originated in Bangladesh where it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty. Due to the success of microcredit, many in the traditional banking industry have begun to realize that these microcredit borrowers should more correctly be categorized as pre-bankable; thus, microcredit is increasingly gaining credibility in the mainstream finance industry and many traditional large finance organizations are contemplating microcredit projects as a source of future growth. Although almost everyone in larger development organizations discounted the likelihood of success of microcredit when it was begun in its modern incarnation as pilot projects with ACCION and Muhammad Yunus in the mid-1970s, the United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit.”

Learn more – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit

So, I’ve been contributing to others most of my life. Many of us do this unconsciously, other with reciprocity in mind and the rest with some kind of intent.

There are many phrases that capture this concept of contributing to others: Favor Bank, Good Karma Network, Pay it Forward and my new term “10x”.

The Favor Bank was coined by Tom Wolfe in his work The Bonfire of the Vanities.

“Everything. . . operates on favors. Everyone does favors for everyone else. . . If you make a mistake, you can be in a whole lot of trouble, and your going to need a whole lotta help help in a hurry. . . But if you have been making your regular deposits in the Favor Bank, then you’re in a position to make contracts. That’s why they call big favors, contracts. (pp 400 – 401)” cited by Kravis-De Roulet Leadership Conference in his book Multiple Intelligences and Leadership.

This is I believe how many people think about favors, “I’m doing something for __________ and in the past or in the future _________ has/will do something for me.

I’ve been using the phrase “good karma network” for the last 10 years or so. I’ve never taken the time to define it, but many of my friends would understand what I was trying to communicate when describing my reason for some action as part of the good karma network. Meaning, based grossly on the concept of karma, meaning I’m doing something specifically for others, no immediate personal gain for myself and I don’t have any reciprocation in mind, some also call this altruism. I just put that action (gift, contribution) out into the universe and don’t look for the return. I know at a intuitive level it will come back, but that is not the primary motivation. The primary motivation is only to help others.

“Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. The results or “fruits” of actions are called karma-phala. Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward. Karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it brings to others. In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one’s present life and all past and future lives as well.” sourced from Wikipedia

This concept was well demonstrated in the feature film Pay It Forward in 2000 – critical success. The screenplay was adaptation from the book by the same name authored by Catherine Ryan Hyde. If you would like to learn more about her foundation, Pay It Forward Foundation.

“Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him. Source IMDB

Summary written by Jim Beaver {jumblejim@prodigy.net}“

That brings us to “10x”; sometime over the holidays I was working on helping a new friend and entrepreneur on his business. This individual is also a client with one of my partners. Well, I had an epiphany regarding the assistance I was providing and the return he was providing to my life and business. I was thinking about the favor bank, the good karma network, pay it forward and I thought 10x. What if I was focused on providing 10x (x = to the value provided to me). This is a bit of a misnomer because I intend to provide this contribution without any reciprocation. I just know that it is the right way to operate. The more I think about it, the more I take this action and the more I share it with others causes a bit of a snowball effect. I’m already starting to see the results and the benefits are growing at an exponential rate.

Have a great year and try a little 10x!

If you have any success or see a cause and effect, I’d like to hear about it…