Social Entrepreneurs Competition

Dear Friend of Echoing Green,




We are excited to launch our search for the next class of Echoing Green fellows. If you are interested in applying, you can get started now by downloading the application questions here. We will be in touch again when the online application goes live.



Complete details are available at: http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellowship



And please consider helping us spread the word more broadly:

· Forward this to group email lists or list-servs that you have access to

· Submit the note below to any newsletters where you can contribute

· Blog, Tweet, mention on Facebook/LinkedIn, etc.



Thank you so much!



Rebecca



- - - - - - - - - -

Rebecca Magee

Data and Events Coordinator, Fellow and Alumni Programs

Echoing Green

A: 494 Eighth Avenue Second Floor

New York, NY 10001

W: http://www.echoinggreen.org

T: @echoinggreen



Echoing Green Seeks World’s Leading Social Entrepreneurs

Since 1987, Echoing Green has provided seed funding and support to nearly 500 social entrepreneurs – including the founders of Teach For America, City Year, College Summit, SKS Microfinance, and Genocide Intervention Network.



In Spring 2011 Echoing Green will award between 12 and 20 fellowships to early-stage social entrepreneurs. Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding over two years, technical support, and access to a powerful global community of fellows and alumni.



The online application will open in October 2010. Right now, potential applicants should review the application questionsand sign up for application updatesfrom us. Complete details are available at: http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellowship



Turn your dream for social change into a reality.

Sales And Golf, the ‘Links’ to Learn

I have studied the strong bond between golf and salesmen. Probably since the outset of the game, and most of the top sales professionals are extremely good golfers, a lot of business is conducted on the links, but this article isn’t about how to sell on the golf course, rather it’s about the many similarities between selling and playing the perfect round of golf.

An adept player says, “It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.” The same can be said of sales: the more activity you put into your craft and work day, the better the results will be. Selling is not about luck or chance, top salesmen may give the impression that it’s easy, but that has come from years of practice, and often many costly mistakes. The bottom line is, you can’t shortcut the hard work needed to be successful (and that goes for anything in life!)


The object of the game of golf is very simple: you have clubs and a little, white ball, the course has 18 holes, and you have to hit the little ball as few times as possible until it goes into the hole. Likewise (the game of) sales is equally as simple: there are buyers and there are sellers, and there are products and services. The salesman has to sell his products or services to as many buyers as possible. Just like golf, even if you are playing in a group, every time you’re really just playing against yourself. With sales it’s the same thing: what you’re really selling is yourself (the product or service is usually secondary, unless you have a high-demand item and limited availability.)

Both golf and sales are a mental game. If you walk onto the golf course with the wrong attitude, it will show in your performance. If you make a bad stroke and stew over it, you’ll have a run of bad strokes. Keep a clear head, take it each shot at a time, don’t over-think it, and you’ll be surprised how much better you play. The same applies to sales. If you have problems at home and you drag those thoughts around with you, you won’t be as productive that day. If you have money issues, the potential buyer will pick up on the fact that you want the sale more than they need what you’re selling. If a sales appointment goes badly, have some techniques to clear your head and move on. Conversely, if you have a great appointment and make a sale, leverage that positive attitude and turn a great day into an awesome day.

I’ll leave you with one other useful comparison: know when to call it a day. When your energy is high, the weather is perfect, and your game is on, that is the time to consider maybe playing two rounds (or at least another 9!) Just the same with a perfect sales day or week, even if you’ve hit your quota, this is the time to get ahead to cover for the bad times – go for a personal record. At the opposite spectrum, if a bad day just keeps getting worse, you’re doing yourself no favors by battling on regardless – that’s when a bad day can turn into a big slump. Best thing you can do on a day like that… Dust off the clubs and head to the country club!

Adopted from Anthony Donnelly

After Your Best Wish...

You can dream for the loftiest heights within reach of your imagination. On the highest peak, there is still left more of the best for you.



Last Saturday, I attended a wedding in Naivasha, my hometown. Meeting acquaintances last seen more than 10 years ago brought nostalgia and with it memories of the strongest desires then for the future.



Oscar Wilde said, “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers". If some of the prayers of our former lives were answered, we would prefer to be far from the answer.



Since we dream to be something, we rarely become. I believe the easy to achieve dreams are those of getting qualities in life such as love and happiness around us. However we aspire for what is seen and approved by others in title and position in life.



Dreaming and seeking qualities of life that are indestructible is independent of title and position in life. Whether in a shack or palace, you will always have them.



When young, there are many dreams I had that related little to life qualities of love and relationship. There was great inspiration from the teachers seeing them as know it all. That then was a big dream.



Today, having obtained an Engineering degree, practiced and smelled of lofty positions, the real dream is to be a model father to my children and a good friend to those around me. A strong relationship with God is the highest inspiration. It is much more than any position I could wish for.

Five wishes by Gay Hendricks will be an interesting read for you.

Instructions

When is the last time you read instructions for your new gadget? For three years we have been using a microwave oven the wrong way. When we got the microwave oven, all we did was plug it in the socket and started using.




Today morning while in Kitchen I realized that the top surface was dirty and the thin vinyl covering was coming off. I thought, can’t this be removed? Then the clear notice in three languages became noticeable to me for the first time, “your microwave oven is covered by a vinyl covering to protect it. BEFORE using for the first time, remove the covering bottom up”. A diagram was drawn to show this. I pealed the covering in one minute.



Today morning I am going to the bank for the third day with embarrassment. I deposited money I a fixed account six months ago, got the certificate and misplaced it. Yesterday my wife found it in a place where we had not searched – next to the wedding certificate. On the deposit certificate are instructions for recovering the money on maturity. The last two days I claimed to the bank that I knew nothing about the instruction. It time to bite the humble pie and admit that I was wrong.


Life can be easier today if you read and understand the instructions for your life today. There is the best source for you here.

Are you an Entrepreneur or Intrapreneur?

The term entrepreneur is common. Not so with intrapreneur. This is a new word adopted by 1992 when the American Heritage Dictionary adopted it to mean "A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". It is an employee who takes initiative and self-motivated to use a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.

While much is today talked and advanced about entrepreneurship not much is said about intraprenurship. Before venturing into business, you need to search within yourself to find out what you best suited. Your gifting might lead you to be more suited to work within an organizational structure that is already established and running rather than to create your own.

Gifford Pinchot's out-of print book " Intrapreneuring, Why You Don't Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur" provides 10 commandments for intrapreneurs:

Do any job needed to make your project work regardless of your job description.
Share credit wisely.
Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
Come to work each day willing to be fired.
Ask for advice before asking for resources.
Follow your intuition about people; build a team of the best.
Build a quiet coalition for your idea; early publicity triggers the corporate immune system.
Never bet on a race unless you are running in it.
Be true to your goals, but realistic about ways to achieve them.
Honor your sponsors.

As an entrepreneur, you are well aware of the great risks you have to take to enter into new ventures on your own. Are you ready for this lonely journey?

Before taking a leap out of employment as yourself what you are best suited for – an entrepreneur or intraprenur?

Building future Leaders through Christian Professionals' Mentorship

When you hear of a Kenyan college mentioned, a picture of burning buildings, vehicles and injured students and police flash your mind. What has gone wrong? Lecturers wear themselves out teaching the students every year. Upon graduation, students however do not seem to fit immediately into the market.

The Christian graduate is faced with a challenge of maintaining integrity at the work place. With constant mentoring students can be grounded with principles to enable them hold against the many temptations that they will face.

Why mentor students? As a pioneer of the fellowship John Ng'ang'a strongly believes that it is a God given mandate to follow up on these students while still in college, "It is the best place to mould future leaders," he says. After college, more than 50% of the Christian professionals lose their fervour. They seem to grow cold and do not stand for the faith they had been so passionate about.

Student life is ideal if not given a taste of the evolving market. Many students do not have such an opportunity. One spends most of the four or five years are in campus with little exposure to the industry. After graduating, it is a time of shock adjusting to new work environments far much different from class. It is a trying time.

To fill part of the gap, a group of Christian professionals have taken the initiative of mentoring college and university students. Every year, the group, Christian Business Professionals Fellowship (CBPF), visits a university for a careers' day - a day of mentorship. Working with the Christian Unions, Student Unions, and University administration this has been a great success. Nairobi University main campus students however organised a careers night, a first for them and other colleges. About 300 students and 20 facilitators turned up for the event.

Interacting with the students, the professionals inform them of the market needs and how best they can be prepared. One student at the University of Nairobi has described these interactions as, "exceeding all that I have learnt in a whole semester!"

CBPF operates under the umbrella of Fellowship of Christian Unions (FOCUS), the professionals mentor students amongst other activities that they engage in. Dinners and high teas encompass some of the networking opportunities that they organise for professionals in the business world. FOCUS has reach out programs to schools and colleges.

For the more than 10 years the fellowship has been in existence, they have reached 10 campuses where up to 500 students attend a careers day once a year. They are more than 200 professionals that commit to facilitate discussions in these days. Twenty facilitators attend a time.

Initially three universities, University of Nairobi Lower Kabete and Main Campus and Kenyatta University received great focus until three years ago. Today, other colleges and universities in and out of Nairobi have requested CBPF to facilitate in their careers' day. They include Moi University in Eldoret and Egerton University in Nakuru. In Nairobi, they are Daystar University, Nazarene University, Jomo Kenyatta University, Kenya Polytechnic, and University of Nairobi Kikuyu Campus.

The professionals conduct the careers fair in three sessions. First, the students sit in a plenary session where speakers handle topics that cut across all careers. Then students divide into various career discussions groups. At the end of the day, there is a general question and answer session where all the facilitators are engaged.

Professionals of all background in training and practice are involved in the mentorship. The students are encouraged to get involved and find out what they can learn from as many professionals as possible during the group discussions. Life is not a straight jacket. Career changes are common and almost guaranteed in the market place. One has to remain adaptable to a changing world.

Joe spent 5 years studying a degree in mechanical engineering. However, he is a gifted artist. After graduation, he spent two years in an engineering company. It did not fit well with what he felt he liked to do. One day he simply did not show up at work. He had set his mind to pursue art. Had he received proper guidance in college, he would have done the necessary preparation to pursue his passion.

Gathering professionals from their busy schedules is not easy. Some feel inadequate to mentor. They fail to know that by sharing their experiences in the market they have given the best. It comes as a surprise when they have attended for the first time and realise what a blessing they have been.

Peterson, a CEO of an investment bank has been is always ready to go to any length to avail time for the student. After driving for close to 600 kilometres to Moi University, tired and getting calls from a family eagerly waiting for him said, "The enthusiasm demonstrated by the students to learn is a motivation to."

What is God's will in your life? This is the first question to answer concerning careers; it is necessary for students to get their mission and vision in life clear. It is then easier to define what they are gifted in doing regardless of subjects studied.

The guideline for discussions focuses on answering three questions: How did you end up in your present career? What challenges do you experience in this career? These involve spiritual, family, and job related. What are the opportunities in the market?

At the plenary sessions, major topics are handled. These are all that an individual will need to know regardless of the training. Three areas are critical – curriculum vitae (CV) writing and interviews, entrepreneurship and work ethics and ICT.

Human resource professionals elaborate the different ways of writing curriculum vitae (CV) and taking interviews. Next, questions are answered on how they should conduct themselves during an interview. Having been trained in this manner, getting a job becomes an enjoyable process as they anticipate what the employer wants and demonstrate their capability to deliver.

George Sikulu, a head of training and development in an NGO has been doing career guidance with CBPF for three years. Having been involved in recruitment of many staff, he has a lot to share with potential job seekers in universities."What is a CV?" his question stuns most students. "we all know what it is for!" this seems to be the response in most people's mind until they learn the purpose as only to earn one an interview.

Entrepreneurs are involved in guiding the students to establish their own enterprises. Although there are few Kenyan students that get to college, jobs are even fewer. A blissful life is not guaranteed by a diploma or degree. The students need to have an open mind about available opportunities and participate in creating jobs.

Haron is a businessperson who is involved with mentoring students in entrepreneurship. From his vast experience, he surprises students with ideas that lie close to them but not taken note of. With students taking different courses, he asks, "how has your community benefited from your education?" most students have not implemented any of what they have learnt at home. One veterinary student responded, "I have never given it a thought." He and other business professionals stir the students mind on the many opportunities present for self-employment.

Have these sessions been useful to the students? Several of the students testify of the confidence they have to present their CVs and attend job interviews. One employer has testified of noticing a difference at interview time of some students. Later, he learnt that CBPF had been trained them.

Both in and out of college, the Christian professionals offer themselves to guide the students and graduates in careers. The network is growing and more professionals and groups are getting involved. The careers fair is the start of a relationship to mentor.
It is a fulfilling experience for the professional too. Service in this way has enabled them to gain confidence in their careers as they expand their networks.
We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
Ben Sweetland.

As a Christian professional, one can get involved by offering a name and contact to cbpfkenya@gmail.com.
There is much to give but of ourselves, we will be the best lesson to others.

WHY TIME IS THE MOST CHALLENGING RESOURCE TO MANAGE

This is a lesson given byHaron Wachira, a mentor in entrepreurship for the entrepreneurship class that is meeting every Sunday.

In economics, time is considered as a nonrenewable resource because it is a scare commodity. Time may only be saved, spent, or allocated to get something accomplished. Money is sometimes traded off for time, as when a busy person hires someone to perform specific tasks. However, for the employer, managing the time of employees becomes another challenge. Out of the 12 months in the year, the business has to contend with:
Weekends: 2.5
Employee holiday 1.0
Lateness, excuses, etc on average 1.0
Proposals preparation. Pitching, looking for work (six months) 6.0
Delays, waiting (for others), cancelled appointments, etc 1.0
Total (months likely to be lost!): 11.5
To make the most out of time, it is important to understand the following concepts / approaches:
Time Management is the conscious control of time to fulfill needs and achieve goals.
Time measurement vs Tasks / assignments
Efficient sequencing (following of one thing after another in a series or an arrangement) – cuts waiting or travel time, thereby increasing your productivity
Time- tagging (mental estimation of the sequences that should take place, the approximate amount of time required for each activity in the sequence, and the starting and ending times for each activity) enables you to allocat time more effictivey.
Deliverable based supervision
Time displacement: a central management concept, which is concern over how much time spent in one activity takes away from time spent in another activity. For e.g., choosing to watch television rather than studying will affect the goal of academic achievement.
Time allocation vs individual’s values, ie what is important to that person. For e.g., if a family values a shared dinner hour with a multicourse meal, then the family members will set aside time for meal preparation and eating together.
Time measurement units (whether minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years): by allocating tasks based on smaller units, one may get more accomplished, but only IF supervision is minimal
Discretionary - Is the free time an individual can use any way she or he wants, eg lunch time, evening and weekends (from the perspective of an employee). Nondiscretionary - Is the time that an individual cannot control totally by himself or herself. For example, scheduled class time, opening/closing of banks (that keep your money). To improve management of discretionary/non-discretionary time:
Make a daily: things to do list” or keep a calendar.
Say “no” to request for time that keep one from finishing projects already under way.
Make use of technology: computer, telephone, recorders
Delegate
Keep a flexible schedule that allows for unexpected events
Questions your choices, “Is this the best possible use of my time at the moment?”
Establish priorities that determine what / when to allocate time (goals, schedules
Understand your productivity cycle, and allocate tasks to yourself based on when you are best suited to perform them (eg some people work best at night, others during the day after a cup of coffee)

Haron Wachira

Information Technology Associates Ltd

7th Floor, Eden Square (AIG House), Chiromo Road, Westlands

hwachira@gmail.com