Category: Life Lessons

I often find life lessons in conversations that I have with people. I also find them in films, art and in books. Beneath you’ll find the life lessons that I learned along the way.

Life Lessons

From the short stories series: The Struggles of Our Life

Posted on by Lisanne

Enjoy the short story about the Struggles of Our Life.

The Struggles of Our Life

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter.

The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners and took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.

Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter.

“When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Growth mindset

In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about leaning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

Head over to more blogs that I wrote about storytelling:

Life Lessons

From the short stories series: A Box Full of Kisses

Posted on by Lisanne

Enjoy the short story a box full of kisses!

A box full of Kisses

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”

The man became embarrassed by his overreaction earlier, but his rage continue when he saw that the box was empty. He yelled at her; “Don’t you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried;

“Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all. I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.

Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child.

Her father kept the gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

Love

Love is the most precious gift in the world. Leave a comment down below, to let me know what you think of this story called a box full of kisses.

You may also like other short stories, head over to these ones:

From the short stories series: the elegant rope

Life Lessons

3 reasons why you don’t have to be an actress or a politician to do good

Posted on by Lisanne

Just like the blog that I wrote called this is my definition of success, this is another thought of mine that was stuck in my head for quite a while. There are certain things that strikes me when it comes to the public perspective of doing good. Let me explain why I think you don’t have to be an actress or a politician to have your voice heard, make a difference and to do good.

The public perspective

There are so many high profile individuals with a lot to be thankful for. Fame, wealth, status… And they are also very visible with that. You know, it’s not a surprise that so many people sign up for talents shows in fields like the entertainment industry.

With that fame, status and wealth also come great opportunities to do some good and give back.

Look for example at former Victoria Secret Model Doutzen Kroes. After her work as a model she started to do some charity work to protect elephants and bring some awareness for AIDS.

Another example is Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio. For many years now, they are trying to make a change in the world of climate.

There are not many high-profile individuals who are using their fame to serve the greater good so consistently over the years as Al Gore and DiCaprio do.

All of these people somehow use their fame to bring awareness to a certain topic and do some good.

Having so many people interested in what you have to say is great and because of that, people often think that you need to be a politician or an actor before people start to listen to you.

Or before you are even able to do some good just because they’re able to reach millions of people with their visions, ideas and thoughts.

Let me give you 3 reasons for why I think that everyone within his or her own field has the ability to do some good and give back.

And that it’s not only a game for actors or politicians.

Three ideas

1) Doing good and success come in many forms

Let’s draw an important line here. When we have a look at politicians, actors and models, we see fame and we see a certain success.

Those two are often not separated. But fame and success are not the same at all.

In the blog this to me is the definition of success, I already talked about the importance of formulating your own definition of how success should look like. Success is entirely personal, it does not rely on others for approval and it is about your own career dreams, your own aspirations and it should be defined by the accolades one achieves for her own benefit. In the Collins dictionary, success is defined as “the favourable outcome of something attempted.”

In addition to that, fame is defined in the Collins dictionary as “the state of being widely known or recognised; renown; celebrity”. Although many people strive to become famous, being widely known doesn’t necessarily imply that you’re on the path of achieving something favourable which you attempted.

For example, being widely known doesn’t necessarily imply that you are a happy person, that you hone your craft, or that you are making a bigger imprint on the world than others that are not famous. We can find people who became famous but didn’t like any of it. It’s when fame brings you a certain success, but not the one you actually want.

But what fame does imply, is that you are able to reach way more people than most of us can, that you are having a certain access to a network of (other) high profile people and that more people know your name.

Therefore, fame creates a lot of opportunities. Opportunities that you can use to serve something that you find meaningful. If you’re able to do that, you make those two complement, although they differ in meaning. Obviously you don’t need the fame to become successful, but what does matter is your vision on what success is. You need to know where you’re going and fame can help you along your journey.

2) Finding the right people

So once you find out for yourself what you want to do, it’s more important to find the right people for the things that you want to achieve, than to become just well-known with random people.

If you’re passionate about pepper seeds and you want to start a business, let’s go find the people who also passionate about that. Once you find the right people, you’re more likely to serve them well, know what’s really in their minds and to give back.

Being well-known by 10 people who can do stellar things for your career is far superior to being known by 200 who can’t help you whatsoever. Size doesn’t matter, but engagement does. So you’re successful if you know how to promote yourself for the right reasons.

That means that, besides the fact that there is no place for everyone to become famous, it is also not needed to become famous in order to do meaningful work and do good. You only have to find the right people to make things work. It’s the number one rule in marketing and business.

3) Use your abilities

Therefore, using your abilities to serve others in a meaningful way is another important one for why you don’t have to be an actress or politician to do some good.

I mean, because I have a background in social sciences and business I’m more likely to write content for you that is useful and meaningful. The experiences that I have, my knowledge, my values and ideas create the opportunity to serve this community. Although I don´t reach millions of people, I do think that there are certain ideas and messages on my blog that can be useful for the online audience that I speak to.

And maybe you are a teacher, working with disabled children. Or you work in the film industry where you experience the underrepresentation of women. Those challenges combined with your own talents, skills and expertise, can create an opportunity for a better future.

When it comes to doing good, I am sure that in your situation there are things that you can do and use to make a difference. And although it may seem that being famous is needed to reach millions of people, those famous people have opportunities and boundaries too. It all comes down to the question what you’re going to do with the things that you do have, to make a change.

Conclusion

So there are some reasons to believe that you don´t need to be an actress, model or whatsoever to do some good to the world.

Although they’re able to reach millions of people, we all have talents, values, skills and therefore, opportunities to make a meaningful change to peoples lives. If we try to focus on improving ourselves and doing things that we love to do in order to serve others, we end up adding value to peoples lives. Whether you are an actor or not.

Besides that, if fame is not the same as success, we really have to find out for ourselves what success is and how we personally would define it. Doing good and being successful comes in many forms and in some ways fame can be complementary to success. It can enable you to do more of the things you love to do.

But doing good is not about finding the biggest audience for your story, rather than finding the right audience with the right people. The change you seek to make should fit the needs of the group of people you’re trying to help.

So formulate your own definition of success and how it should look like, find the right people that need that change you seek to make and use your expertise to serve them as good as possible. When it comes to doing good, it really is up to yourself to make the moral conclusion: am I doing what I can, within my own situation, to do some good and am I consistent and authentic in doing that.

Last note

My hope is that we can let go of that overly focusing on fame as something that you need to have to achieve your dreams or as something that you need for doing good. Making a name for yourself can be in any field, and there are many problems to solve in this world. If we find more and more people that do work they love and at the same time try to do good in many industries, I think we are blessed with each other.

So I am very happy to hear from you. What do you think about this and when do you think doing good is done with integrity? Let me know!

Life Lessons

This is how you deal with gossip

Posted on by Lisanne

I’ve also learned how to deal with gossip in my life. I met my boyfriend in my own house. He was my roommate and we lived with many others. One of the biggest struggles for me was that I had to figure out what it was we shared, while there were others who wanted to label it as such.

Gossip is from all times

Whether you’re in high school or later in your life. There will always be people who are going to judge. Whether this judgement is positive or negative, with that label people put you in a box.

As a result of people putting you in a box, it can leave you with confusion. Even little and short sayings can disrupt you. In the worst case you can start to believe those gossip.

And although we all know we have to let it go, we sometimes do it ourselves or find it difficult to actually let it go.

Hell yeah, Dr. Phil has something…

I watched this Youtube-interview between Dr. Phil and Sophie Turner. You can know her from Game of Thrones. They had a chat about her mental health problems and how to create meaning to suffering.

Until Dr. Phil came up with something that I found very meaningful to share with you. He said:

When someone spreads lies about you… It’s not about you. Ever. Gossip, whether in the form of a rumour that’s sweaping the nation or a gripe-session between friends, reflects the insecurity of the person(s) who initiated… And mostly when we are making statements behind their backs, we want to feel powerful.

In some way we feel powerless, unworthy, etc. Hurtful words, whether to ourselves or to others… sends the message we cannot be trusted. Gossip means we haven’t embolden’t ourselves to talk directly to the people we take issue with. So what you do: you belittle them.

AMEN.

View this post on Instagram

Uit een boekje

A post shared by @ swartttt on

From @swartttt

Conclusion

I love this. What do you think of these words? Do you think they are inspirational?

If you’re interested in more life lessons, head over to these blogs:

Life Lessons

From the short stories series: The 4 Smart Students

Posted on by Lisanne

In this article I am going to share with you a motivational story that helps you understand why every choice you make has its own consequences and taking responsibility for that is so important. This upcoming short story is about the four smart students who partied hard, then wheren’t able to take their exam and then decided to made up an excuse. Enjoy the story of The Four Smart Students!

The four Smart Students

One night four college students were out partying late night and didn’t study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning, they thought of a plan.

They made themselves look dirty with grease and dirt.

Then they went to the Dean and said they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their way back the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back. So they were in no condition to take the test.

The Dean thought for a minute and said they can have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked him and said they will be ready by that time.

On the third day, they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as this was a Special Condition Test, all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of only 2 questions with the total of 100 Points:

1) Your Name? __________ (1 Points)

2) Which of the tires burst? __________ (99 Points)
Options:

  • (a) Front Left (b) Front Right (c) Back Left (d) Back Right

Lesson

What those students went through is the perfect example of the saying what goes around, comes around.

Although their situation may sound recognizable to people and even adventurous at some point, they didn’t take responsibility for themselves acknowledging that they had partied too hard.

The Dean made them learn their lesson by showing that every step along the way has its own consequences. And that it’s about setting priorities on the things that you find meaningful, in order to live with its consequences.

Did you like this story? You may also like these short stories as well:

For more short stories, head over to this section.

Lisanne
From @Swartttt
Life Lessons

From the short stories series: The Butterfly Story

Posted on by Lisanne

Short stories are powerful reads. The great thing about them is that they’re so easy to digest, and there’s always a moral at the end of the story. Whether they’re true stories or not is another thing, as many of them are legends supposedly hundreds of years old.  However, the stories that I’m talking about in this series are so powerful and inspirational that many of them really do get you thinking.

Enjoy the short story of the Butterfly!

The Butterfly Story

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body.

Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening: were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. To prepare itself for flying once it was out of the cocoon.

Lesson

Our struggles in life develop our strengths. Without struggles, we never grow and never get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle challenges on our own, and not be relying on help from others. In the blog What nonprofits and Coca-Cola can learn from each other, you can learn more about the importance of a growth mindset on both a personal level as on a business level.

Tell me in the comment section below if you like the butterfly story and what do learned from it.

Life Lessons

From the short stories series: The Wise Man

Posted on by Lisanne

Short stories are powerful reads. The great thing about them is that they’re very easy to digest, and there’s always something to learn from. Whether they’re true stories or not is another thing, as many of them are legends supposedly hundreds of years old.  However, the stories that I’m talking about in this series (you can find more over here) are so powerful and inspirational that many of them really do get you thinking.

Enjoy the short story of the wise man!

The Wise Man

For years people have been coming to the wise man and complaining about the same problems every time. One day he told them a joke and everyone roared in laughter.

After a couple of minutes, he told them the same joke and only a few of them smiled.

When he told the same joke for the third time no one laughed anymore.

The wise man smiled and said, “you can’t laugh at the same joke over and over, so why are you always crying about the same problem?”

Lesson

The story of the wise man reminds me of the idea that we are all on our own path and that just sometimes someone’s soul isn’t in alignment with yours. Too often we get angry or sad when someone isn’t the way we want them to be or feel. Why not just walk away from the people who are not in line with our core values. If love is no longer being served, why cry over and over again about people you can’t change. Love the short story of the wise man.

Interested in more short stories?

Or keep an eye on this section for more: Short Stories.

Life Lessons

From the short stories series: A Pound of Butter

Posted on by Lisanne

Short stories are powerful reads. The great thing about them is that they’re very easy to digest, and there’s always something to learn from. Whether they’re true stories or not is another thing, as many of them are legends supposedly hundreds of years old.  However, the stories that I’m talking about in this series (you can find more over here) are so powerful and inspirational that many of them really do get you thinking. Enjoy the story of the pound of butter!

A Pound of Butter

There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount, which he wasn’t. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court.

The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weight the butter. The farmer replied: “Honor, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.”

The judge asked: “Then how do you weigh the butter?” The farmer replied:

Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.

Lesson

What goes around, comes around. In life, you get what you give. Don’t try and cheat others.

You may also like these short stories:

For more, head over to this section.

Life Lessons

Intuition. A great gift that needs to be noticed

Posted on by Lisanne

Every now and then conversations that I have with people are about intuition and especially what that intuition is exactly. I’m a big believer of the importance of intuition, and that highly intuitive people actually do things differently.

Hard to define

I would say that we all experience a gut feeling every once in a while. That “little invisible man”, sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear what to do and what not. He’s always there. Always ready to guide you.

Steve Jobs once acclaimed that your intuition is more powerful than intellect. See more quotes on intuition in this blog: my top 10 quotes to embrace your intuition. Despite the huge role that it plays in our everyday lives, its still hard to define what it is. The nature of intuition has long eluded us, and has inspired centuries’ worth of research and inquiry in the fields of philosophy and psychology.

There’s one thing that I know about intuition and that is that it is taken way to less serious as it supposed to be. I consider intuition as how Sophy Burnham from the book the art of intuition calls it: “I define intuition as the subtle knowing without having any idea why you know it”. It’s a great clarification because most of the conversations that we have about intuition are about analyzing it. But how to analyze a knowing without knowing?

Subtle

I agree that that tension is interesting and actually I would like to speak more with people on this topic. Clearly artists would say that its all that they do. Being intuitive and open to the world and incorporate their insights in their work. But intuition is way more subtle than having it or not.

Obviously, the intuitive side of your brain sees things differently than the logical one and therefore it guides you with information that can help you differently too. Therefore, I don’t think you’re work is succeeded by using intuition or your logic only. It’s a combination. It’s more like depending on the moment on which you react using or your sensitive side or your rational one.

View this post on Instagram

Always observing.

A post shared by @ swartttt on

Important life skill

Are you intuitive? Bestselling author Sophy Burnham contends that we all have hunches and sudden insights, and that we need only awaken to our innate abilities in order to develop our inner wisdom.

In this fascinating book, Burnham tells the stories of individuals who have “seen without seeing,” illustrating the wondrous workings of what she calls our “intuitive hearts.” Exploring a wide range of subjects-from loved ones’ abilities to communicate telepathically to the mystery of the artist’s inspired creativity; from animal communication to psychic powers; from scientifi c studies of premonition to the skeptics who deny the very existence of such phenomena-this is a stunning contribution from a leading spiritual thinker on a topic vital to us all.

With exercises and step-by-step instructions, this inspiring book guides readers in developing their intuitive powers and learning to trust their gained insights. According to Burnham, intuition is always right, and when you receive messages from Spirit-be it in the form of a subtle impression or a thunderous bolt from the blue-you must always, always act on them.

Conclusion

Reading the book Burnham wrote opened my eyes on how highly intuitive people do things differently. But I also embrace the idea that being this or that, isn’t that important.

What’s interesting is when to use that special gift. And how to use it. Acknowledging that everyone has this great gift called gut-feeling is a first step. But if you don’t pay attention because you don’t know when or how to use it, it’s time to practice a bit, in order to balance it with your logic side and promote some inner wisdom for yourself.

To me, Sophy Burnham has written an expansive and illuminating treatment of intuition as an important life skill that can open many new doors for us. It’s a great gift that everyone has and we need to notice it to gain some inner wisdom for ourselves. If you’re interested in her work, head over to Burnham’s book: The art of intuition.

Life Lessons

What nonprofits and Coca-Cola can learn from each other

Posted on by Lisanne

You know, running a blog business sounds really cool. And it is: I often find myself smiling to random people at the streets, just because I was thinking about all the great things that happen to me. But on the other hand, there is much that I still have to learn and practice. In this article I show you what nonprofits and Coca-Cola can learn from each other – and why that lesson to learn from others is so valuable for us.

Scroll to the end of this blog for the TedTalk video.

Limiting thoughts

We are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others sometimes. In this funny book: How to be Miserable, 40 strategies you already use, Randy Paterson writes how comparing yourself with others is one of the things that makes peoples lives miserable.

For example thoughts like: what are the things that this person has which I don’t have? Am I good enough? and: Can I be like her? Many of the thoughts that we have hold ourselves back from a life of contentment. We use labels, judgments and comparisons, while they don’t necessarily make us happy. We keep focusing on the negative, dwelling on what we can’t change, isolating ourselves from friends and loved ones, eating junk food, or overindulging in alcohol. Those thoughts may limit the quality of our lives.

In the next article I like to explain to you the importance of learning from others and why the opposite of it, namely, comparing yourself to others based on labels and judgments, can be in quite in your way to grow.

The subjective side of labels

In the book Nonviolent communication by Marshall Rosenberg I came across this poem written by Ruth Bebermeyer. The way she explains labels stuck with me ever since:

I’ve never seen a lazy man;
I’ve seen a man who never ran
while I watched him, and I’ve seen
a man who sometimes slept between
lunch and dinner, and who’d stay
at home upon a rainy day,
but he was not a lazy man.
Before you call me crazy,
think, was he a lazy man or
did he just do things we label “lazy”?

I’ve never seen a stupid kid;
I’ve seen a kid who sometimes did
things I didn’t understand
or things in ways I hadn’t planned;
I’ve seen a kid who hadn’t seen
the same places where I had been,
but he was not a stupid kid.
Before you call him stupid,
think, was he a stupid kid or did he
just know different things than you did?

I’ve looked as hard as I can look
but never ever seen a cook;
I saw a person who combined
ingredients on which we dined,
A person who turned on the heat
and watched the stove that cook the meat –

I saw those things but not a cook.
Tell me when you’re looking,
is it a cook you see or is it someone
doing things that we call cooking?

What some of us call lazy
some call tired or easy-going,
what some of us call stupid
some just call a different knowing,
so I’ve come to the conclusion,
it will save us all confusion
if we don’t mix up what we can see
with what is our opinion.
Because you may, I want to say also;
I know that’s only my opinion.

I love the poem because it shows how easy it is to think in terms of judgments and labels, while you actually don’t know who you have in front of you.

Not only that, judgements can also be either positive and negative. You may classify a person “pretty” and “successful”, but yourself as “indecisive” and ugly. Whether it’s true or not, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day those labels are very subjective and comparing yourself with others through the labels that you make, can be quite in your way of becoming fully present.

Broadening my perspective

I know that I have some unique abilities that serve me well. But that has not always been my life. When starting a blog business in the online industry, I knew for sure that I wanted to do that. But there were also times that I saw myself as too introvert and with not enough knowledge for the entrepreneurial work. Because I didn’t believe that you can get there without having both, I labeled myself as “unable” to become an entrepreneur, or something like that. And once you label yourself that way, things become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As a result of that label that I had stuck on myself, I started to live by that belief. I started to have a strong focus on improving my skills and knowledge, and kept spending my time to reading about entrepreneurship. From setting up businesses to people’s visions about leadership. I also spent some time with people and read some other books (mostly self-help) that helped me realize the limiting believe of that mantra.

As time past by I came to the conclusion that having an extra-vert character and enough knowledge of business were both part of how I thought a good entrepreneur should look like. And that although I was longing for it, there would never come a moment in which I would be satisfied of all the knowledge that I had gained.

Moreover, I had also to admit that if I had a good look around me, there were ofcourse enough examples of introverted entrepreneurs who weren’t shouting from the rooftops to promote their businesses. Take for example serial-entrepreneur Richard Branson, who is a self-called introvert. He wrote this blog about being an introvert in business: Even introverts can become great entrepreneurs.

I found myself in a place where, in some way, these thoughts distracted me from the real doing. I came to realize that I needed to change my perspective on things.

Growth mindset

Whether that label of me being a bad entrepreneur was created by me or my environment, for sure it was implanted in my brain and it affected my way of thinking and operating. But I don’t think that I’m defined by my introvert character or the amount of knowledge that I have. I do think that we are all human, with basic needs, living through unique abilities.  

Being able to see those unique abilities in yourself, that is what I would call a growth mindset. It enables you to think: well I may not have this, but I do have that. And being an imperfect person makes me proud because I know where I came from. Learning to see those unique abilities in others as well, can give you the opportunity to learn from others and use them in a way that it can improve your life for the better.

What I now know about myself, is that I have some unique abilities that serve me well. I’m a great listener, I’m always open to learn new things and I also have a great sense of what’s really going on in peoples lives. Those abilities serve me in achieving the things that I want to do. And because I am not afraid of admitting that I’m not the most dominant person, I’ll find people who are better than me in doing certain things. That’s how you lift each other up. Let’s see how I am now… A couple of years further I own this website and turned it into a real brand. And I absolutely LOVE it!

Learning from your opposite in business

Especially paying attention to people who are your opposite is a way to help yourself grow. And even from a business point of view it may be helpful to zoom in to the unique abilities of other brands. That is why I like the following TedTalk so much. It’s called: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola.

Melinda Gates talks about the strategies that Coca-cola used to become the valuable brand that she is today. The strongest brand out there, to be precise. Those strategies can benefit nonprofits as well, to learn from others, to save lives and make the world a better place. 

Consequently, it wouldn’t be constructive to stick the label “too commercial” on a company like Coca-Cola. It would give nonprofits the permission to say: “well, that’s not our cup of tea. We don’t have to look at that because we are not like them”.

Wouldn’t it be a growth mindset to say: “we want to learn from the unique abilities that this company has and incorporate these into the mission of what we want to accomplish in the world”. The same as with people. 

Conclusion

Whether we’re talking about people or companies. Having a focus on the things that you can learn from your opposite in order to improve your life or the company’s life, can be incredibly useful. That’s what a growth mindset has to offer you. 

Think about what this growth mindset can do for you and your life. Maybe there’s something that you can change for the better.

For now, you may have become interested in the Tedtalk about Coca-Cola and Non-profits. I’m not gonna give you any spoilers, so just dive into this thoughtful talk.

Head over to more life lessons that promote to learn from others if you like: