After a few delays, I am happy to announce that Help2Grow is finally a legal charitable trust registered in India. There is a bit of work to be done so we can get our bank accounts up in the next 2 weeks but, finally, we’re getting set to get to work.
Help2Grow was founded on the idea that we would exist to supplement existing schools and homes for the underprivileged. We recognize that the problem of abandonment is not one we can solve – however, there is a lot we can do to make the lives of those abandoned better. We’re now at a stage where we need to define this vision, mission, and the objectives that follow. It is an exciting time.
As I think about these, there are 3 thoughts that come to mind –
1. Making small progress on big goals. One of the temptations when we get started is to just begin taking action. This is something I’m working actively to avoid – we need to take the time necessary to think about what our goals are. In the absence of this, we will run the risk of making big progress on small goals (“let’s just do something”). There are perfectly good reasons to start small but there are no excuses to think small.
2. Hustle to build a school, not a class. There is a lot of initial excitement among the family and friends involved to get started. We all want to go out and make impact. Another check for us would be to focus hard on building the equivalent of a school – build systems that work for a sustainable organization. And, I think the key word in that sentence is sustainable. Many noble trusts and charities either run out of funds to be sustainable or lose out on the initial good intentions to make sustainable impact. Sustainable funds. Sustainable impact. Sustainable everything needs to be a focus.
3. A culture of narratives. A final thought as we build Help2Grow would be to build in a culture of Jeff Bezos-esque 1-6 page memos/”narratives.” We’ve already initiated this shift in our meetings on the Real Leaders project and in a couple of other places. I’m loving it. Writing forces an incredible amount of clarity of thought. It’s something we need to embed in our culture. We’re not going to have limited funds and unlimited desire to make an impact as we begin. There’s a lot of thinking to be done and then a lot of good work to be done.
It’s an exciting challenge.
A Learning a Day 