Wording explained: Poignant

Poignant
To make an intense - lasting impression

Are we living with an intension to make a long-lasting impression? There are certainly days I go to bed and feel wasted - not feeling like I've made my mark on my world...But it's a choice!

The truth is, being poignant is a choice! A mindset even. What do you want to offer the world? Just a passing by? Or is there more you can do? Can you be...poignant?
And please - when you are  make sure you are a PLEASANT one.
Because I can also call out some intense -lasting impressions that were horrible.

One for One model - my personal few

As more companies like www.toms.com and www.oneforone.nl  start becoming successful, it's amazing to see how WILLING people are to help others -by buying certain products!
The concept is simple: Buy one for you - and you also give the same or simular product to somebody in an development country. Love this concept - and love the impact it has on the people involved!

I remember trying this concept myself in a similar way. By selling CD's in Brooklyn, NY.
The idea was simple. At that time I was starting www.1moreChild.org, together with Bosco Mukiibi. A simple charity - raising money for school fees for orphaned children in Uganda.
At the time I was member of this CD club that did crazy offers. Buy one get 3 free (not 3 for a child in Uganda by the way! 3 free for me!)
I would ask friends and co-workers if they were interested to buy CD's "for a very low price", promissing that HALF the money would go support the orphaned children in Uganda!
Every semester I was able to sell enough CD's to support about 16 children. It worked!

Buy One - Get one Free for an other is a great proposition for any business wanting to make a Social Profit!

Well - maybe not every business. I think you need to keep the flowing things in mind:

If you want to run a success full 'One for One program, you need to:

1. Have a great PRODUCT to sell! Duh! You can't just assume that people are going to buy your product, simply because it also supports 'an other person'.

2. Make a 'connection' that makes sense! I admit - my 'CD' example is not even a great 'one for one' example  because I was not giving away 'cd's' in Uganda. But I was able to pretty much keep the 'one for one' model. Every ONE cd allowed ONE child to go to school for about ONE month.
But a much better fit could be:
- buy this pen, and a child in the dessert of Ethiopia will be given a pen as well.
- buy this bike, and a bike will be given to a young entrepreneur in Kenya who can now reach all his customers
- buy this set of POTS AND PANS, and a widowed mother in Russia will receive a set to help feed her hungry children.

3. Go beyond the expectation. I think that some examples are actually weak...
How come you can only give ONE to a person? They money you are making on your product... could it possibly buy TWO people the same item? What if you didn't just have the item given for free - but have the person make a small contribution? Could you then give TWO the item?
That's what we've done with our childrensbook 'the Birthday party'. For every book sold, we're able to give TWO birthday books to children that never had their birthdays celebrated - en especially never have been given THEIR OWN BOOK!

4. Make it very visual and share-able!  I find that many people LOVE to tell./show their friends they did something nice to somebody - especially if they also enjoy the fact you just sold them a GREAT product.  So make sure you really encourage your buyers to 'share' their experience with you! It's worth every time you ask somebody!

 5. Show pictures after the fact has taken place. I love www.charitywater.org - because you can really see where you money has gone. You can follow the process of their projects here.
People want to be able to SEE if they did the right thing when they trusted you. Did you really give the other gift to the person you said you would! I can do much better at this by the way!

So when looking to create a One for One project - keep these 5 things in mind! I know you might be very surprised about the amazing results you can get!

Is there any link between your product and a product you help somebody else with? Could you make it work? How? Tell us!

Priorities, birthdays and a 100 good reasons...

I love work. I love acomplising things. I love creative ideas that take lots of time - and make me have to stay up late. Don't know why - just love the process.(as long as we're really making something - long nights of useless discussions drain me!) So the other day, as we were preparing our Tjeko Fun Fair days in Jinja, I got really excited about the opportunities of celebrating birthdays of thousands of kids that never get to celebrate their birthdays! The whole year we'de been planning these days already - writing and illustrating our first ever Tjeko Book with Guillaume Girault - raising money to organize 9 new fun fairs - and spreading the manifesto of Tjeko to more schools and NGO's in Uganda.

My son. Ok, few days AFTER this story, but I  love the pic.

One of the staff was telling me about the arrangements that were made in Kampala, and it would take us a whole day to get things done - but the sooner the better.
"Well, let's go tomorrow!" I said in excitement, "I know there are other things that need to be done - but to get this birthday book printed is more important. We shouldn't let that wait..."
Everybody was getting excited too - and we made the arrangements and schedule changes that were needed to make our trip to the 'printer' of our 4200 books a reality. We planned to leave Jinja at 6am - to make sure we wouldn't loose any time in traffic.Everybody happy.
As we were closing off the meeting - one of our Tjeko staff prayed a quick prayer over the where-abouts, when it dawned on me...Tomorrow. Tomorrow is... Tomorrow is my sons BIRTHDAY! Oh crab!
In my excitement of the preps of celebrating the birthdays of so many other kids... I had forgotten my sons!

It's in these kind of moments I realize one thing. In time of crisis you always fall back on your core values. It's the core of your being that takes over when you only have few seconds to make up your mind. In the 'blink' of an eye you have to decide: "What am i going to say, ones this quick prayer is over...".
Or in other situations:

• What am I going to ask my child when he comes home...
• What will I tell this casiere about the mistake he made in giving my change
• What do I need to do, now everybody is looking at me for an opinion...

Even though the birthday celebration of my 3-year old son would only take 10 minutes in the morning - I knew I couldn't do it if I had to go to Kampala. But I know I could never do all the things we had just decided upon a minute ago if I would stay to celebrate those 10 minutes once my son would wake up...at 8am...

That day I fell back one my core value: the poor will always be with us - but the childhood of my son is only coming by once...

I had to tell these guys that all our plans had to be switched again. I had to stay home that next morning - no matter what...

And you know the funny thing? Even though I thought for a moment that everybody would be very annoyed?  Nobody was! Once they all understood why plans had to be changed - they respected the reason - and they all helped change the whole schedule again. And they always will. 

Core values that make sense - more often than not are accepted. Just make sure you have the right ones.

Do me a favor. Make sure that you know you fall back on good core values. You are the only author of those values... so make sure you have the right ones...

More on core values? The 7 habits of Highly Effective People made me realize more about them.

Love to hear your experience on your core values!

Wording explained: Profitable

Profit-able.

Something that is able to make a profit. 

I love this word - it has always hold my imagination. I have never been about making lots of money - but I've always been about trying to find a profit in anything I get my hands on. Leverage what you are doing - so you can make something profit-able.

In today's time it seems to be more possible to make something you love doing profitable. Well - that's what every other 'self-publish'-guru tells us. But don't be deceived! Not EVERYTHING you do is profitable. If you love watching re-runs of reality shows, I've yet to discover how you could make that profitable. The trick is to find something you are/love doing - and then find elements in it that could benefit others.

Step 1: What is it you are/love doing most of your time?
Step 2: What is it you are doing that connects to others around you?
Step 3: How can what you are doing benefits others around you? Is there something you know that can bring value to others? Could it be amusing? Would it encourage somebody?
Step 4: Are you willing to invest some time in sharing what you know, so it can benefit others?
Step 5: If you could let somebody pay for the things you offer - how would that look like?

I would love to think along with you - right here on the blog - or privately in an email -

Lets build something profitable together.

5 ways to make your air travel more smoothly (family traveler)

After coming back with my two 'world-travelers' from Uganda the other day, I figured I should share some of the 'tricks' we've been using/trying/enjoying after traveling more than 50,000 miles combined with our kids. One thing is sure: it's a lot different than 'flying solo'!

Emeth and me 'board'ing... not really ... he LOVES flying :)

Before having children myself I always got irritated with people who couldn't keep their kids quiet in a plane. If you don't have kids yourself, it's normal for you to feel like this. But watch it... one day YOU might be the one traveling with kids and I am wishing you ALL the best :) It's not easy :)

But like in everything in live: you'll need a bit of creativity to make things FUN!
So before you travel with your kids - imagine how it will look like for your kids to be on an entertaining trip! One that is not relying on the entertainment-set of the aircraft alone - but has the attention you! Trust me, even when you use some of your imagination - you'll still have the occasional cry. But it will be an OCCASIONAL one!

So here are my hand-full of tips that might help your next flight be more smooth :)
(mind you: my kids are 3 and 5 at the moment of writing this post, you might have some great suggestions for us how to travel with older kids?)

# 1. Prepare your kids for the travel
YouTube gives you PLENTY of video's on airplanes, airports and other (young) passengers traveling. My kids loved watching these video's, knowing that they too would be flying!
Here is a great PLAYLIST with video's for younger flyers!
By the way: I'm always quick to remind my kids that the trip is also VERY LONG AND BORING! Just to lower the expectations a bit.

# 2. One little suprise per hour
This one takes a bit of time before you leave, so you might not want to do this 2 hours before you leave... Wrap little gifts in wrapping paper. Little gifts can be anything: a candy or lolly pop. A small toy. Even a small toy that already belongs to your child, but it wasn't part of the luggage for this trip. An empty postcard to write to grandma. Some beads and a threat to make a necklace. Anything that can get your child excited, and can shift attention from the long flight.

# 3. Request kids meals during pre-boarding
Maybe you were already aware of this, but if you pre-board your flight in advance, you can request for special kids meals! Really - much like a happy-meal, but than healthy :)

Our empty box even had to
come home with  us! Thank you KLM!

An other beauty of kids-meals in an airplane is that they are often served a few minutes before the others. And ofcourse this makes us feel REALLY special!

# 4. Keep the entertainment-set off for as long as you can!
Maybe it's my personal dislike to television - but the longer you can entertain your kids apart of the system - the more exciting it is when you turn it on.

# 5. Ignore irritated faces of fellow travelers
Truth is... anybody that doesn't have kids or has never traveled with them - taking them out of their natural bio-ritem... they just don't get it.
I didn't get it! You probably didn't get it before you ever traveled with them yourself.
Lighten up! Your kid is trying hard. He/She can cry for a bit :)

Question: What kind of tricks would you suggest? Especially when you have bigger kids! Ta and I would love to know!

4 ways to make your air travel more smoothly (solo travler)

I am by no means a professional traveler. I am only have an Ivory Frequent Flyer-level. I am not greeted by name when I enter the plane (a former boss told me he is sometimes).
Yet I find myself constantly trying to travel ... smoother...
I'm realizing that traveling is a great way to get work done - IF you don't get sidetracked too much by all the procedures and distractions that is!

So here are my 4 current travel-smoothers at the moment.

#1: Pre-board at home - print your ticket in advance
I love the current opportunities to pre-board (pre-plan) your air travel these days. Make sure you do your first round of 'pre-boarding' the minute you order your ticket. Fact is: the earlier you do this - the more choices you have. Especially picking your favorite seat!

• Go for that 'emergency-exit-seat', or decide if you want to be by the window or an ail. 
• Close to the bathroom? It's your choice!
• In the middle of 50 empty chairs? You are in charge! (just don't complain if you end-up between 49 high school students going on a trip!)

But it's not only your seat you get to be picky about - there are more and more options  you can pre-arange.

• Any special food-orders
• Extra luggage (often for reduced price!)
• Even extra leg-room! (currently I only know of KLM offering this service - but there might be others!)

#2: Put all your 'stuff' in the pocket of your jacket

I'm one of those unconscious pocket fillers. Any given moment you ask me to empty my pockets I'm  surprised to see what comes out of them.I discovered that this adds lots of time to any security check! Annoying! 

Solution: put all your 'stuff' temporary in your jacket pockets! Including your cell-phone and your change!
Now when you arrive at any security detector - simply take off your jacket and put it trough the scanner! No more fiddling in your jean-pockets, trying to get that last coin from all the way in the bottom of your pockets. And then no more re-grabbing everything from those annoying gray trays once you're trough. Let's be honest - it's already stress full enough you're having to take of your shoes and belt!
This is a guaranteed a 60-seconds WIN at every security check-point

#3: Keep the entertainment-set off for as long as you can resist!

I've found that my travel time in the air is way to valuable to me than to waist it on watching the TV-set in front of me. Of course I'm excited it's being offered - but I found that the longer I can control myself to keep it off, the more productive my travel time becomes! Flying allows you to finally read that book you always wanted to read. It gives you great opportunity to write your journal (or blog posts for that matter!)
Come prepared - make a time-schedule even! Force yourself to make this time use full. Educational even! But come empty-handed and you'll find yourself simply loosing yourself in some mega-entertainment-menu..

#4: Start a conversation with your neighbor when food is being served.

Even though there is not one way of doing this right, I find that connecting with your neighbor can be extremely great - or extremely pain full! You never know if you're sitting next to a person that won't shut-up if you get them started - or if it's a person who is an amazing connection in your network!

So...my advise? Keep a polite distance when you first come in the plane...minding your own business (see point #3). Than when food is being served start a conversation. If you feel it's not going anywhere - just go back to your work after a few polite words. But if it IS the missing connection you'll be forever grateful that you didn't keep to yourself the WHOLE flight!

In a later post I'll put down some points that smooth my time when we travel with our kids - for that's a whole other ball game!

What do you do to make your air travel smoother? Love to learn some new things myself!

Google Reader instead of Television

Having made a conscience choice not to watch television anymore has given me enormous freedom!
Not that we don't have a tv sitting in our livingroom, it's just that we never watch it. The only one watching cable in our house is our babysitter! And I'm very ok with that!
It's not that I am against television, it's just that the amount of garbage is too much. So much input that is uninteresting - it's filling up room in my head!

(picture from: Free Stock Photos at 123RF)

I like to be in charge of what I'm watching and reading. With the amazing development of internet we can now be much more in charge than before! Now I get to decide what to watch, and when. (No, I'm not convinced that interactive television gives me that same kind of freedom. I'm still being directed in what other people want me to watch - and when)

But how do you get 'the right content' to you, without spending hours of searching the web?!
My suggestion: create your own streams of content. Let your greatest websites bring you the items and the news YOU want to receive - not what 'whomever' decides is relevant.

How do you get this great content in one spot?
I use Google Reader. It's a great RSS-feed program that helps you bring the best of anywhere together in one place! Your lap!

How does Google Reader work?

1. Go to www.google.com/reader
If you don't have a google account (think aobut accounts on Gmail, Picassa, Youtube) you have to create one first. I would suggest to make one that uses your full name. It just looks profesional :)

2. Click on the 'Subscribe' button
You create little subscriptions to websites you like most!

3. Copy/paste the web address of pages your like.
Make sure you copy-paste pages that have 'news' on them, or have regularly new items. Pages that never change won't bring you any good articles of course! 

Many pages have a 'RSS feed button', but it's a myth to think that you can only use those pages!
I find the best way to check if the page you like to 'stay in touch with' has RSS-ability is by just trying to copy-paste the address in the subscription part. Google will tell you right away if the link works or not!


4. make folders for quick viewing
You can put all your streams in one big folder (I did this for years) or you can devide them in separte folders. In that way you can pick and choose better 'what kind of content' you want to look into.
Just recently I started doing this. Some of the folders I've made:

• Marketing - any side that gives me great marketing news/ideas
• Friends - all the blogs of friends that have blogs (if you have a blog, let me know, so i can add!)
• Listen - my favorite folder! All great podcasts I like to listen too! I always seem to go to this folder when I have some time to listen to ANYTHING. Like when I'm driving or traveling
• God - all websites that bring great spiritual input
• World - I just put all news-stream in this one
• Great - Some of the great websites that bring POSITIVE news! I tend to read this folder more often than 'world' 

5. start reading! 

Google Reader can be used in many different ways. For example, I  have a Reader installed on my phone. So whenever I spend some time waiting, I go to my Reader, and instantly I get to the articles, programs and podcasts I love best! Google Reader even keeps track of the posts I read - so the content is always 

I realize that you might be using a program like Google Reader that's even better. Or maybe you use the Reader in much more advanced ways. Do you? What am I missing out on?