Virtual Assistance and You

A couple of truly outstanding examples of business at its best have come to my attention lately, and I want to celebrate them here. To me, these people are demonstrating the highest standard of business in multiple ways. They are contributing to worthy causes, doing so in a renewable way, defining what it means to be a citizen of Earth, and becoming magnificently strong individuals along the way.

I’m talking about Toms Shoes; and a colleague (though I should hardly presume to be in her league), a fellow VA who has positioned her professional work to be a powerful force for good in the world. This woman, Janine Gregor, recently described one of her projects in a press release. The title? U.S. Virtual Assistant Uses Public Relations and Online Marketing Skills to Help Establish a Library in Swaziland.

These peeps are beyond awesome. Why? As suggested:

1. They’re contributing to worthy causes: What a concept! Shoes, for Pete’s sake. This fellow is more awesomely practical than anything else. His work makes sense in a truly grand way. And Janine’s contribution to the library in Swaziland will nurture recipients for many generations.
2. They’re choosing renewable methods to accomplish charitable giving: The old model for non-profits was fund-raising. The new model, exemplified by these entrepreneurs, is good old business churning along and flowing over to the needful places in win-win, natural ways.
3. They’re defining what it means to be a citizen of Earth – a business citizen, anyway. Our commerce can’t be immune to the condition of the market. We can still accumulate satisfactory personal wealth while contributing to the personal wealth of others. I’m not talking about laws, here; I’m talking about honor.
4. And they are becoming magnificently strong individuals along the way. This is a guess on my part; I don’t know either of these folk personally. But I know what it is to think in global terms. It’s not easy, and it has little mercy. It requires marked reduction in your ego value, in favor of something ineffable. It’s a risk the individual is sometimes compelled to take.

What do you think? I feel like apologizing for sounding socialist; but helping the other guy up is simple good manners, isn’t it? The work of these two makes me joyful. We could all use more of that.

Do you know examples of this same generosity? Please comment!