• The new FIT approach.. from competition to collaboration
• The click... thinking and wanting is not enough to take action.
• The orphan wealth project... how do we bring the less fortunate to the wealth wheel.

The new FIT approach...

We are more like each other and less like ourselves. Our mass media gives us all the examples of wonderful people and we strive to find out how they did it to do it ourselves, yet we fail to recognize the importance of our own uniqueness.

With a solid foundation on entrepreneurship and wealth creation or destruction, this project looks at how the business world has used the theory about the evolution of species, attributed to Charles Darwin, of surviving and competing. In an era of abundance and mass specialization, physical assets have stopped to give us protection. We move to intangibles, to creativity, to niche needs, we reach customers, contractors and suppliers around the world, we want a life/work balance, we want our specialty things, we look at satisfying other, more ethereal needs. How can we compete if we have such a wide range of options?

I question Darwins' original "fit" approach... or the linear view of it. Someone said that every day a gazelle wakes up in Africa, it knows that in order to survive it has to run faster than a lion. Every day a lion wakes up in Africa, it knows that in order to survive it has to run faster than a gazelle. Every day a gazelle and a lion run for survival and the fastest wins.

And my approach is based on a more holistic and multidimensional approach.. the "fit" based on fitting the circumstance. Every day a gazelle is weakened by lack of sleep or age, and passes by a lion feeding its cubs on a days old carcass. Every day a lion forgoes running after a gazelle because it is too full or it is in mating season. Every day a gazelle and a lion face different options and their conditions along with their circumstances manage their survival. 

The click... from thoughts to emotions to actions

There is a ton of work, good work, about motivation, inspiration, and taking action. Somehow we are all wired to be self driven, success is not relative to wealth, health, gender, age, race, country of origin, upbringing, education, weight, height, career, studies, hobbies, family, sexual orientation, marital status. We can have wonderful thoughts and get stuck with our emotions.. we can align our thoughts and our emotions (or vice versa, since I am not sure which comes first) and still get stuck.. yet there comes a time when we are ready, we take action, we become unstoppable.

Is it the subconscious? how can we tap into what holds us from taking action?

I have called this the click... the trigger from thoughts to actions... 

An interesting extension of this project is based on the great best seller: Mindset: the new Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck. which I found on a bookstore in Stanford in June 2006.

go to the wealthdrops to find out more.

The Orphan Wealth Project... let's give a hand to those who miss the most

I am particularly interested in this project for two reasons. My mother is a WWII orphan. She had the fortune to live with her grandmother for sometime and was adopted by an American and a Venezuelan at 11... so she had some sort of weak ties to her own family. I grew up thinking I was adopted in the worst possible (and quite childish) way. A neighbor had told me my parents picked me up from a garbage can and it was always on the back of my mind.. besides some other rather dumb and funny conclusions I made when I was a kid, like, yes... we can laugh at this: I am the second of 5 kids, all 3 yrs apart, except of course me, 2 yrs younger than the oldest, and one year older than the third. So much for mathematical conclusions!  For years I felt Martian, unfitted, unworthy, whilst my family had no clue of my thoughts. I have met some adopted kids, but I have rarely met any real orphan and I wonder what would happen if we could give them some reason to feel that they can make it and that they are important, valuable contributors to the world.

My inspiration on the orphan project came from various sources... but I remember vividly a flight between Houston and Arizona where I was sitting next to two white young guys. Our conversation was based on finding a purpose for life.. it was simply fascinating...

One had gone from a deep depression to ask for death or a reason to live in his college years, he had gone to the family ranch to either end his life or find a purpose. He did by simply looking at a sunrise.. forgot the IVY league college (this would make a great American story) and found an organization that helps orphans in Eastern Europe to make a reasonable transition into the adult world. They create a dream chest with letters from people and provide them temporary accommodation at a religious place for a year or two.. by doing that they've reduced the suicide rate from 30 to 20 %... I could not think how my life would be if I was kicked out of my orphanage at 17 to fend myself on the streets... could you?

The second guy was a blond blue eyed young man who grew up in a black neighborhood in New Orleans. His arms were cut from fights and his view of the world was that of violence and... more than anything, survival. He was rather charming, extroverted and ready to show he could do it. He was on his way to the military or some vocational school. He was as determined to have a successful life as the other one... yet his views were different. Underneath his strength and self assurance was a young guy thinking: what if they hit me, punch me, assault me? and he was already prepared for action... I could not imagine living in such conditions but I could relate to his desire to succeed.

As I always found the time and inspiration to work with poor mothers, I thought about those that are really behind.. who have no one back there and I am working on finding ways to make orphanages sustainable and orphans wealthy, not by donating money but by giving them tools to be responsible for their own future.

I cannot do it alone, but I will do something about it. Like drops of water, resilient little steps cause great impact. I am looking for companies or individuals who want to form a team so the services and products these kids produce can be sold so they know that they are creating a future for themselves and for their "home".

So, here are my babies in womb, sometimes sticking their feet out like small Joeys (baby Kangaroos)...