One of the most inspiring things I have done this year is present to a group of startup entrepreneurs at Gloucestershire University. I presented on how to start thinking about sustainability.
At the beginning of the presentation, almost all of them held a skeptical outlook of “what can I do? I am too small to make a difference!” By the end of the presentation a handful of the businesses came up to me and said they had some clear ideas of how any business, no matter the size, could start taking action to rejuvenate the environment and make a positive contribution to society.
This was a great moment where I truly felt I had delivered 100% on my purpose: To inspire people to think differently and be a catalyst to make good stuff happen.
I encourage my clients, small and large to pinpoint their purpose beyond profit. With a young company like BoomCircle (2 years old in March) this evolves, almost daily. Finally, I think the dust has settled on my ‘pinpointing’ journey. Reflecting after the event at Gloucestershire Uni I realised there were three fundamental drivers that motivated me and in turn my business:
- I love to inspire people to action
- I feel a great satisfaction in helping people and businesses realise their potential
- I find joy in making things happen as quickly as possible, no one has time to waste!
It is very rewarding to be part of the ‘light bulb’ moment when a business realises the sum of all their ‘scattergun’ activity on sustainability - it’s almost always more than they think. For example, cutting plastic use, investing in renewable energy, having robust welfare systems or investing in the local community.
By spending a little time getting more organised around this base of activity, businesses can turn something that they thought they were ‘not very good at’ into a strategically relevant stream of work for the business. This turnaround in thinking and approach is the greatest pleasure of doing my job and the reason I get out of bed in the morning!