Circle of life February 10, 2009

Trading Tuesday: Circle of Wealth

As the moon and sun rotate in a circle, so do almost everything in life. The path of living thing is rarely straight but rather a wavelike motion of ups and downs and circles. When there are circles and waves – there’s movement. The world need movement and energy to function in balance and when the motion gets disrupted somewhere, that’s when chaos and calamity are bound to happen.

Similar with the economic condition of the world now, the circle is slowly going into a halt. If we look at the big economy of the world, we can liken it to the big circle. Now that the big circle is having difficulty spinning, what are we to do? Should all of us keep waiting for its slow and painful turning? Since it’s big and muddy now, the rotation is slow, the energy needed to turn it around is huge and it may take a while. But, we still need to get some circles going because we need the movement!

What can we do?

We can start working on creating and building small circles. Small circles that will keep the movement flowing. Why is it worth and more efficient to work on smaller circles now?

In laws of physics, energy that is needed to rotate smaller circle is smaller than the bigger circle. Therefore, it’s more manageable. Almost everybody can spin a bicycle tyre but only hulks and giants can spin fat tractors tyres!

This is where entrepreneurs come in, small business owners. We come in to spin the circle. To keep it spinning and churning the much needed energy and to maintain the much needed movement. Focus should be put on local economy and creating sustainable small scale industry.

When is the best time to do it? I believe more than ever, the time is NOW.

©Copyright Naziehah Feb 2009

Buy from nice people January 20, 2009

Trading Tuesday: Buy from nice people

We always buy our fresh groceries from one grocer in our neighborhood. I really like the shop as each time I came in, my nostrils will be greeted with the freshest smells from apples and oranges and pears. So so lovely!

But what we like most about this grocer is that the owner is a very nice lady. She is so nice to all her workers and treated them like families. And it is all reflected by the energy in her shop. Her workers are always very happy, helpful and smily. Most of them were foreign workers but they radiated with sense of confidence and fulfillment that can only be obtained when they were treated right by their employer.
In a span of few months after opening, this owner has already shifted once to a bigger store and her customer base is growing everyday!

Truth is, people like nice people. And people like buying from nice people. It is something very inherent in our nature. When we see goodness, our heart warmed to it. When we see justice and fair treatment, we feel like supporting them even more.

Lately, there’s much talk about boycotting products from Israel and America. Some will base their intention on religion, some on humanity responsibility and of course as with every issues, some will also oppose the action of boycotting.

As for me, my reason is always simple. I buy from nice people. And I would work very hard to find nice people to buy from.

So when I decided to buy only from nice people, I need to look for them. I need to look for business people who’s nice, and fair, and just. I need to look for companies who uphold nice, and fair and just values. Companies that is not biased to any one race or religion or nation. Good companies that sell good quality products.

I have read somewhere that in today’s world where there is so much cruelty and nastiness going on, kindness and niceness has become a rare quality. And when something is rare, the value will definitely goes up.

Think about it entrepreneurs/aspiring entrepreneurs..or any good and nice people out there. Do we see opportunities? I think so!

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Image from here

More than profit December 16, 2008

Trading Tuesday: More than profit

The term ‘entrepreneur’ has been tainted with many negative connotation. Greedy, irresponsible, money-orientated, blood-sucking evil – was among the not-so-nice names we’ve been called.

People always think that all we care is ‘the bottom line’. We will stop at nothing to make our profit. While there are people like this who dabbled in business, there’s an increasing number of entrepreneurs that seek ‘more than profit’.

Ever since I read ‘Banker to the Poor’ and ‘Creating World without Poverty‘ by Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and the founder of Grameen Bank, I was introduced to the concept of ’social entrepreneurship’. A  truly eye-opening and inspiring concept.

For years we were taught to define ourselves in one dimension while the fact is, human is multi-dimensional being. We love money, but we also love people. In fact, most of us actually love people more, but we were not given an avenue, a workable concept to operate ourselves. That’s why when I came across social entrepreneurship concept, I feel like a part of me is finally at home.

For me personally, I would  adopt some of the concept and applied it in my conventional enterprise. That’s why I started the Elwarda Asal collection in my Elwarda Accessories business. Through Elwarda Asal, I am able to work on an enterprise that is ‘more than just profit’.

I always feel very strongly about  people working hard to make their own living. I found it very humbling that these Orang Asal (indigenous people of Peninsular and East Malaysia) would find things in their environment and use it to create beautiful crafts and accessories. They did not have the same opportunities as us, to be born in the land of gadgets and trinkets.

I hope that by selling some of their products, they will be even more motivated to work harder and smarter to sustain themselves. I hope when I am able to sell their handmade accessories, they will realise that there are more than one channel of ‘rezeki’ for them. I hope they will realise that there are many people out here who cares for them and who loves them and who will support them in more ways than one.

(suddenly I became a bit emotional *sob-sob*)

I am still very early in my venture. I may make many mistakes but I aim to keep improving myself and work on creating a truly workable system for Elwarda Asal. I also aim to keep on adding a ’social entrepreneurship’ concept to all my future businesses, Insya-Allah.

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Image from here

Image from here