Naples Social Action

You know what I like about our work creating NSA? It's completely organic, even more than Coine Language School was in the early days.

Take our newsletter as an example. For issue #4, out 8 days ago, we used a really cool and inexpensive online service to create a hot new look - if you haven't seen it, email me and ask to get on our emailing list. I liked the look of it, as did Jane, the newsletter's editor-in-chief. So we were delighted with the results, and I must say proud.

...But quite unexpectedly, we started getting all these people contacting us asking to be on our mailing list. I mean, each of the first three issues won us a fair share of praise from well-wishers who liked the content. But with this new look, all of a sudden Naples Social Action is a media player here in Naples. I even have the executive editor of a respected magazine taking me to lunch (while Jane's away on business) to see how we can help each other.

I never intended for NSA to become a media company. But here we are. We threw some spaghetti against the wall, and it stuck. That's how I do things, and... see? Sometimes it works out.

The Bicycle Series page is another clump of spaghetti that I just figured I'd throw up there. I like to ride my bike. Naturally, that led me to make friends with other cyclists, some of whom are involved in philanthropy like me. I learned that the cycling events in town are no better coordinated than the nonprofit fundraisers, so what the heck, we knitted together a bike series.

And three days later, we started our runner's series, which we'll have posted shortly on the biking page, right underneath. More spaghetti sticking to the wall.

I think my Tigger-like enthusiasm make some people nervous. Engineers, finance types, librarians, many computer programmers - many of these folks don't get how I can pull things off. But you know what? I'm not half the flake they might think I am, for one thing - I'm actually very efficient; I just don't brag about it: I'd rather have those outside the board room just think I'm fun, if a tad eccentric. For another thing, I'm relentless. I don't sit and plan, and I don't worry if something falls flat. I just grab another strand of spaghetti and fling it against the wall. If it sticks, we know it's time to dig in!

I don't think NSA could be half as wonderful as it is if we didn't let it grow as it will. We have to try a multitude of services to the community, and see which ones the community likes, which it finds unimpressive. This experimenting is fun. I guarantee you, some day Local Social Action will be huge, and - if Jane and I are not really careful - kinda... set in its ways. But now is the fun part. Now, to me, is the part worth doing. We'll let someone else cross the i's and dot the t's.

More fun than...

I can honestly say that nothing has ever delighted me so much as the work I'm doing creating Naples Social Action. Six months ago it didn't exist, not even as a vague idea. Somewhere in February, the idea struck me to put together a calendar for the entire nonprofit community; I spoke with Michael Junkowski at VSM.net shortly thereafter to pitch him on it - after all, somebody had to to the heavy lifting, the actual tech work. Without Michael... well, I shudder to think.

March 27th we went live. That was almost exactly 5 months ago. Since then, Michael has single-handedly created a masterpiece. The website is much more robust than I'd ever thought possible.

Jane and I have been more than a little busy populating his work with content. We're still reaching out to nonprofits to tell them we're here and give them passwords; now we have an additional teammate, Lois Barrowcliff, who is our liaison to the art community.

It took me over two months of round-the-clock work to make the CAN Ride happen. Probably only about 5 hours total, start-to-finish, was stressful. The rest was just plain fun, as I got to meet all sorts of nice people all over Naples. I've taught, I've sold, I've written, and I've managed, but I've never done anything like organize an event of any kind. Kathy Nicklaus and her board, volunteers, and the entire CAN operation were just great to work with.

When you look at the money we raised - about $9,000 for our two groups to split - you could easily argue that it wasn't cost effective. After all, my one-day speaking fee is more than that; I was even asked by a few skeptics why I didn't just give some talks and donate the fees to CAN.

Well, yeah, the money is important to any nonprofit, and CAN is no exception - neither, for that matter, is Naples Social Action. But I chose to take the long view, and I stand behind that choice. You see, Naples Social Action is growing in scope, and I need to get my hands dirty now so I can guide it when it's huge. I couldn't run a language school if I weren't a very experienced teacher. Jane and I could never write about and teach customer service if we weren't steeped in that field ourselves. I come to the nonprofit realm with no background what-so-ever. I'm educating myself, that's all. And class is a pleasure.

It's fun for Jane and me to sit back and watch our newest endeavor unfold - as with Coine Language School when we started, we really don't know what the final form of Naples Social Action (and later Local Social Action, when we export it to the rest of the nation) will be. First we were an online calendar.

Now we're that, plus we throw fundraisers, hopefully about one every month once we get up some steam.

Then there's the newsletter. It took me the entire day today, starting at 4:45 a.m., but I sent the newsletter out to about 400 individuals plus a few group email lists, which together bring the number of recipients up over 1,000. And we're only on issue 4.

Is NSA going to turn into a media empire, as we sell advertising to fund the causes we support? Stay tuned - right now, your guess is as good as ours. All we know is, we're enjoying our work immensely.

"Do what you love, and you'll never work another day in your life," as a wise man once said.

12 Years - Too Little Time?

I've committed to ending poverty in Immokalee by the year 2020, which is a little more than 12 years from now. Can we do it, or have we set ourselves up for failure, even ridicule? You decide.

In 12 years, companies have gone from one person's idea to mulit-billion-dollar operations.

You could get 3 Ph.D.s in that time.

I don't think it's that daunting a project, but the thing is, we'll never get there if we don't try.

As management guru Jim Collins says, we need a BHAG - a Big Hairy Audacious Goal - or people won't take us seriously.

How will we do it?

We're going to get one laptop for every school kid in Immokalee.

We're going to help create more and more microlending funds.

We're going to come up with solutions that will bring the graduation rate from 50% to 99%+.

We'll attract industry to the enterprise zone out at the airport, so that there are great-paying jobs right there in Immokalee, and plenty of room for start-ups, too.

We'll make sure that everyone living there has access to English, literacy, and parenting classes, run the right way (we've already started with Immokalee Non-Profit Housing, and Habitat for Humanity is joining us after Aug. 20th.)

I've known hundreds of very affluent people in my life, and this year I'll be creating a high school course and textbook that will show poor and middle-class kids how to make the move from the slums to Port Royal and its like, using the experience and advice of others just like them, others who have gone before them and made that move.

12 years? Once this thing gains some steam, we'll look back and say, "We thought it would take how long? We should have had more confidence!"

Inspiration

Any fan of the Incredible Hulk knows that adversity only makes him stronger. That's me.

Now, in the Hulk's case, adversity comes in the form of nefarious super villains out to get him: to kill him, or steal his super powers and leave him un-super. As with any super hero, they always make the same mistake: they underestimate his will to win. Worse, they fail to realize that their efforts actually spur him on and make him more powerful - more motivated to succeed, if you will.

I don't have enemies, and nobody's trying to kill me or steal my super powers (at least not as far as I know). Indeed, most of the people I've met in the nonprofit realm are rooting for us here at Naples Social Action, and many of those moral-supporters are actually helping us. Why wouldn't they? After all, our entire mission is to help them!

But I've bumped into a few organizations who don't get what we're about, or who maybe take my enthusiasm as too eccentric for their taste - or who, perhaps, see our desire to bring the community together as a threat to their hegemony.

To be just a tad more specific, three groups have actively decided not to work with us on joint fundraising projects, and one other organization - I've eluded to this one before - has pointedly ignored us. This one is one of several 800-pound gorillas in town, and I think they're afraid of us because we don't need them. They "help" nonprofits, we help nonprofits.... you can see their concern.

Thank you for your lack of support.

I'm the Hulk. With no resistance, I run the risk of mellowing out: when that happens to the Hulk, he relaxes. He goes from giant green monster to mild-mannered Dr. Bruce Banner.

Ah, but when someone tells me I can't do something... that's when I really shine!

I was a terrible student through eighth grade; the fact that my principal and most of my teachers thought that I was a failure inspired me to go to prep school (it was my idea) and I threw myself into my studies; two years later I transferred back to public school, crushed at my A-level and AP classes, graduated near the top of my class, and was off to a top-tier college. Thanks, guys, for underestimating me.

My junior year in high school, I finally qualified for the YMCA Nationals, but I was on the perennial national-champion team, and the coach had to select which qualifiers would travel. I learned I was not on his nationals list, and... let's just say, I made his team. By a lot. His failure to bet on me spurred me on to accomplish great things.

Fast-forward to my thirties. My employer, owner of a private English-language school in Boston, passed on my offer to partner up with her on a new venture I'd created. Spurned, I bided my time, laid my plans, and founded my own school. While not direct competitors with her - Coine Language School serves a different niche - we eat her lunch. If we saw any advantage to it, we'd buy her school. Oops.

Don't bet against me.

So now we're throwing the Animal Lovers' Parade, and two organizations have bowed out of participation: one told me they don't think we can possibly pull it off in two months. Thank God they did! I've got to show them - not that they were wrong in not participating, but that they were wrong, dead wrong, in underestimating my ability to pull it off.

Of course we can make our next venture a success. Of course! But how much better it will be now that I know someone is betting we'll fail.

The Hulk may not be all that smart, but he always wins. Always.


*N.B. - Okay, unlike the Hulk, I suppose I'm pretty bright. And just for the record, we have very good friends leading the United Way and the Wine Festival. These are not the afore-mentioned gorilla.

In 40 Years Or So

I don't think a lot of people understand where I'm coming from when it comes to my obsession with our nonprofit endeavors, but Jane sure does, and that's the most important thing for me.

Without your spouse's support... good luck. But Jane isn't just supporting me; she's egging me on. Several times now, she's told me, "This is the best thing you've done yet. I have a good feeling about it."

Now, before I go on, let me point out that this is actually the best thing that we've done yet. Jane and I are running Naples Social Action together - the Coine Foundation, too. Maybe she gives me credit for these endeavors being mine because she doesn't spend quite 100 hours a week at it, or maybe because a lot of our ideas start in my head: I have an idea, I run it by her, and she fine-tunes it or laughs at me. So maybe to her, these are "my" ideas.

In any event, here is my story: anyone can get rich - I'm convinced of it; I know too many successful people to still think amassing a fortune is anything all that tough. When I focus on it, I'm pretty good at making money myself. So sure, it's great and all to build a business from scratch (Coine Language School), and then to do it again even faster (Coine Training). I doubt I'll ever abandon those endeavors.

But... well, forty years from now, when I imagine I'll have to start slowing down and limiting my work week some, what will I have? A pile of money? A lot of people I know would say, "Yeah, great!" A couple of businesses with my name on them? Again, this is a fine life's work in many people's eyes. I agree, those are two cool things to accomplish in life.

I want to accomplish something altogether more spectacular, though. And not alone, either. I want to inspire, guide, maybe even lead others to change the world - not just a little, but fundamentally.

Imagine a world without poverty. Or, if you're one of those "realistic" people who keeps getting in the way, let's try this on for size: imagine a world where poverty occurs in only two cases:

1. Temporarily, as when there is a major economic upheaval, or when a person first immigrates to a new country, and has to start at the bottom of the labor-ladder for a year or two before moving up, or...

2. By choice. Let's face it, some people will always make bad decisions. We would be denying our fellow humans a basic right by protecting them from themselves - that's called paternalism, and it's a scourge on society when not taken in small doses. If people choose to gamble their money away, abuse drugs, go into massive debt, or just be lazy and work very little, we can't stop them. So these people may very well be poor even after our best efforts have been expended.

However, very few people will make self-defeating choices throughout their lives. If we can eradicate poverty for most of us, and create a world where we assist those who choose to find a better way and stop being poor, then I'll feel our work is done.

How do we do it? Poverty eradication is all about providing poor people with the tools they need to lift themselves from their current state.

The poor need basic, living wages, so that they can at least keep their heads above water before they decide to swim with a business of their own.

The poor need credit - not all that much, just a tiny bit to get started in business for themselves.

The poor need freedom - capitalistic freedom to create wealth, without the impediment of government or corporate corruption. Many people flee the third world because those countries don't give their citizens a chance, no matter how hard or how smart those citizens are. If your tribe is out of power and so you can't get a business license, there's no way you can win.

People need peace. War can be necessary, but most conflicts are only destructive. When war hits a nation, people are often unable to care for themselves beyond merely surviving.

People need freedom from disease. How could we ever expect sub-Saharan Africa to lift itself from its current circle of despair and failure when half of some countries' adult populations are dying of AIDS? And what of Malaria, Typhus, Cholera...? Disease hasn't been a first-world problem for two generations. We've forgotten how it can shatter lives, and economies.

People need education. If you can't read, you can't get ahead. If you have never learned to add, it will be hard for you to balance your business's books. If you do not speak the language of your country, you can forget ever escaping poverty. In the 21st century, people will need to master technology on an ever-increasing scale. Without education, you just can't get ahead.

So why am I so obsessed with our nonprofit work? I hope this doesn't sound trite or corny, because for me it isn't at all: when I look back at my life's work, I want to be proud of myself. I want to say to my wife and children and close friends, "We've done something spectacular here. We've made a difference. We can rest now."

That's why I get up in the morning. And no pot of gold ever motivated me so well.