What does family mean to you? Certainly your Mom, your Dad and any siblings are in your family.  You would probably toss in the grand parents and cousins as well.

But family isn’t just about genetic ties.  Just look to facebook; apparently many of us have brothers and sisters (or even spouses) that are really just our best friends.  This isn’t just new weird digital behavior—it has existed for ages.  Who can deny that girls have been calling their closest friends sisters since the beginning of time?

Organizations and programs that wanted to develop communities adopted this nomenclature because of our  natural instinct to associate strong familial feelings with the words “brother” and sister”.  This is precisely why the two words describe members in organizations from the likes of Fraternities and Sororities to Big Brother and Big Sister mentorship programs.  Read more »

I have a love/hate relationship with Google.

Most of Google’s products and services are pretty fascinating.

Street view? Maybe it has been around long enough to lose its wow factor, but if you take a step back: how spectacular is that?

Gmail has a wonderfully clean interface and I’m a huge fan of labels & the navigation keyboard shortcuts are wired into my brain.

I made a big splash about Google+ when it came out last summer, and I still think it is structurally far better than Facebook (which admittedly means nothing if no one is using it).

I could go on; the point is simply that Google is capable of awe inspiring, jaw dropping stuff.

Yet, they fall short. Read more »

One of the most beautiful aspects of poverty is the joy that so many amongst the poor share.  Happiness seems to spread through communities like light through a prism.

The first thing I notice when I enter a poor area or a slum is usually the laughter, often of children. Inevitably I always see groups of people with interlocked arms and neighbors gathering around shared TV sets.

Last year, in the flood affected areas of Pakistan, I played cricket with our residents and ball toss with their kids.  The community is truly a family, with everyone working together in a trusting, jovial way.  The happy survive.

Those who might be poor in monetary terms are a far cry from poor in spirit. Read more »

New beginnings & change are inevitable…we are constantly spinning, moving forward, moving backward. Life is happening—there is no such thing as a constant or a ‘forever’.  Practically speaking, ‘permanent’ is a word that can never quite mean what the dictionary claims it does.

Life is one big golden coast line, with each wave slowly washing away intricate sand castles and footprints of passersby.  One wave at a time, paving the way for something new.

New beginnings & change can be sad…something is always lost, the moment is gone, the memories start to jumble with reality and eventually they fade too.  But the waves open the door to a whole ocean of possibility. Read more »

Trust is born out of something bigger than ourselves.

In the last week I’ve had at least three meetings with leaders of organizations working for social good.  If we were in a different industry, our discussions probably would have been a lot less frank and a lot less transparent.

I highly doubt that Larry Page and Mark Zuckerburg call each other up and swap stories on their strategy, approach and recent discoveries.  It just doesn’t happen.

Strictly for-profit businesses are focused on delivering growth to their bottom line, whereas social businesses are also focused on delivering the most impact.  Leaders of the for-profit social sector need to balance making money with making a difference. Read more »