Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations

I was recently meeting with Scott Lazerson, the President of Interface Foundation, an amazing organization that helps connect celebrities with great causes.

In the meeting Scott shared with the the Millennium Development Goals that were established by 187 nations during the United Nations Convention of 2000.  The goals are as follows:

  • Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger
  • Achieve universal primary education
  • Promote gender equality & empower women
  • Reduce child mortality
  • Improve maternal health
  • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases
  • Ensure environmental sustainability
  • Develop a global partnership for development

Even though these goals have been in existence for about 9 years, I have never heard of them.  However, I am passionate about these goals and hope to do my little part to achieve them with social media.

Posted on June 17th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Charity, Education, Ending Poverty, Giving Back, Global Orphan Crisis, Hunger, Social Enterprise | No Comments »

Spiritual Abuse

Spiritual abuse occurs when we mistreat another person in the name of God, faith or religion. David Johnson & Jeff VanVonderen, in their book “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse”, describe spiritual abuse:

“It’s possible to become so determined to defend a spiritual place of authority, a doctrine or a way of doing things that you wound and abuse anyone who questions, or disagrees, or doesn’t ‘behave’ spiritually the way you want them to. When your words and actions tear down another, or attack or weaken a person’s standing as a Christian [or standing in any faith]– to gratify you, your position or your beliefs while at the same time weakening or harming another – that is spiritual abuse.”

Characteristics of Spiritual Abuse

According to the “Spiritual Abuse” article from Wikipedia, Spiritual abuse can include:

  • Psychological and emotional abuse
  • Any act by deeds or words that demean, humiliate or shame the natural worth and dignity of a person as a human being
  • Submission to spiritual authority without any right to disagree; intimidation
  • Unreasonable control of a person’s basic right to make a choice on spiritual matters
  • False accusation and repeated criticism by negatively labeling a person as disobedient, rebellious, lacking faith, demonized, apostate, enemy of the church or God
  • Prevention from practicing faith
  • Isolation or separation from family and friends due to religious affiliation
  • Physical abuse that includes physical injury, deprivation of sustenance, and sexual abuse
  • Exclusivity; dismissal of an outsider’s criticism and labeling an outsider as of the devil
  • Withholding information and giving of information only to a selected few
  • Conformity to a dangerous or unnatural religious view and practice
  • Hostility that includes shunning (relational aggression, parental alienation) and persecution

Read more…

Posted on June 7th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Abuse, Faith, Life Lessons | 3 Comments »

Momentum and Hope

duningsmallLast weekend Crystal and I went sand duning with our friends Matt and Michelle at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park  in southern Utah. The park is comprised of 3,730 acres of breathtaking pink coral-colored dunes, surrounded by red sandstone cliffs, blue skies, and deep emerald forests. Imagine pink sand dunes and lush pine trees.  At first glance it feels like an oxymoron of nature.

This picture shows the four of us in Matt and Michelle’s Sand Rail. This vehicle took the dunes with power and speed and had enough momentum to do whatever the driver wanted to do on the dunes.  (We wore helmets and had 5-point restraint systems in addition to roll bars.)

Later in the day, Matt and I took quads out and Matt taught me the concept of dune “bowling”.  Some of the large sand dunes were shaped as crescents or partial “bowls”.  In sand dune bowling, the quad rider builds up momentum then climbs straight up one side of the sand dune.  As the rider nears the top, and before momentum is lost, the rider turns to one side, and rides along the inside ridge of the sand dune bowl.  However, bowling only works if the rider keeps momentum.  If momentum is lost, the rider must quickly turn the quad down the sand dune to regain momentum. If momentum is not regained, the rider and the quad may tumble down a steep sand dune. Read more…

Posted on May 12th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Business Management, Leadership, Life Lessons, Self Improvement | 4 Comments »

How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R.C. Willey Story

child-buffettI just finished reading a Jeff Benedict’s book “How to Build a Business Warren Buffett Would Buy: The R. C. Willey Story.” If you don’t live in Utah, Nevada or Idaho, R.C. Willey is a chain of home furnishing super stores that dominates the markets it serves in those states.  

R.C. Willey is famous for not being open on Sundays.  When Warren Buffett, the world’s greatest investor, purchased R.C. Willey, this home furnishing chain only had stores in Utah.  After the purchase Bill Child, the CEO who remained with the company, wanted R.C. Willey to open a store in Idaho.  Up to that point, the only R.C. Willey stores were located in Utah.  Warren Buffett refused, believing that the closed-on-Sundays policy would make expansion outside Utah unsuccessful.  Bill Child believed in the Idaho expansion so fervently that he offered to front all the cost for the land and the new store personally.  If the store was not successful, it could be shut down and R.C. Willey would not lose any money.  If the store was successful, R.C. Willey could purchase the store from Bill Child at a price not much higher than what Bill had invested.  Warren accepted, the store in Idaho was built, and it was so successful during the “soft” launch that by the grand opening, Warren Buffet jokingly took credit for the Idaho expansion idea.  R.C. Willey has since expanded to Nevada with similar success.

One of the recurring themes of this book that stood out most were the defining moments in the history of R.C. Willey, and Bill Child’s leadership and decision-making during those moments.  R.C. Willey had many situations where the future of the company hinged on a single decision.  Many people look back at success that could have been and say “what-if.”  Bill Child lead the company through many defining moments that could have made or broken R.C. Willey, and traded “what-ifs” for a world-class success.  Here are a few examples: Read more…

Posted on May 6th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Book Reviews, Business Management, Leadership, Mergers & Acquisitions | 2 Comments »

81 Projects Receive Funding from Gates Foundation

I love how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is using innovative strategies to try to find innovative solutions to some of the most serious issues on the planet, such as poverty, hunger, disease and a lack of education. This foundation just announced that 81 projects will receive $100,000 grants for 5-year health research projects such as:

  • Growing tomatoes to be an anti-viral drug delivery agent.
  • Developing an inexpensive device to diagnose malaria.
  • Using lasers to enhance immune response from vaccines.
  • Infecting malaria-causing mosquitoes with a fungus that inhibits their ability to smell humans.

These grants are given to encourage scientists to pursue bold ideas that could result in breakthroughs related to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and diarrheal diseases.

The Gates Foundation also announced that it will be spending $73 million to help small farmers in impoverished countries.  This money will be used for a variety of different projects, such as developing drought-tolerant corn, implementing more efficient irrigation, and helping women develop agricultural training programs.

I wonder if God blessed Bill Gates to become one of the world’s richest people because he knew how much good Bill and Melinda would do with the money.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Charity, Giving Back, Global Orphan Crisis, Hunger, Poverty, Social Enterprise | No Comments »

Rebuilding the Economy on a Solid Foundation and NOT Debt-Fueled Consumption

I just read an article from Forbes titled “The Savings Bugbear” in which Stephane Fitch describes how economic doomsayers insist the increase in consumer savings may spoil the economic recovery.  The article talks about consumers putting away their credit cards and saving instead.  Last year Americans saved virtually nothing, and now Americans are saving 4% of their income.  Doom-and-gloom folks like Nouriel Roubini’s RGE Monitor project an increase of the savings rate to 10%. RGE analyst Arpitha Bykere laments that “We’ll move from an economy that consumes to one that saves”.  Oh no! (dripping with sarcasm)

In short, Americans are becoming more fiscally responsible.  We are choosing to spend less on unnecessary items, borrow less on credit cards and save more so that we can make needed purchases with cash and weather rainy days.  This is not a bad thing.  These are the same fundamental financial principles we have all been taught and that we all would teach our children.  The wise man builds his financial house upon the rock of savings and frugal spending. 

This frugal/savings mentality might slow an economic recovery.  However, it would build the economic recovery on a much more solid foundation, and give that economic recovery a greater chance at long-term sustainability.  I would much rather have an economic recovery built on solid financial principles that takes longer to achieve than a quick economic recovery based on debt-fueled consumption that everyone knows can’t last.  We’ve had 11 recessions since World Ward II.  Maybe it’s time we should learn from this recession and make the correct long-term financial decisions that will stop this unnecessary recessionary pattern.

Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Economy, Life Lessons | No Comments »

Building a Skyscraper on Leased Land: Does Someone Else Own or Control the Key Asset of Your Business?

In my digital monetization consulting, I have worked for two companies that are far too dependent on other businesses that own or control key assets on which my clients rely.  One client is completely dependent on a publishing company that has a virtually monopoly on the niche publishing market of my client.  The publishing company has far too much leverage, and as a result my clients are not the masters of their own destiny.

Another client is almost completely dependent on Facebook. This client has seen phenomenal success in building a Facebook application.  However, when Facebook changed their design a couple months back, the prominence of third-party Facebook applications was diminished, and most of the leading Facebook apps have seen a huge dip in traffic.  Because of this recent Facebook strategy, Facebook apps that were too dependent on the Facebook platform must now diversify away from Facebook by building their own websites, and using social media websites such as as Facebook as marketing channels for their own websites, over which they have control. Read more…

Posted on April 27th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Business Management, Entrepreneurship, e-Business | No Comments »

Using Digital Media to Help Solve World Hunger

How can we use digital media and technology to fight world hunger?

orphans

On average, about  16,000 children die from hunger-related causes each day, or one child every five seconds.  About 5.8 million children die from hunger-related issues each year, about double the total population of the state of Utah.  (Source: Black, Robert, Morris, Saul, & Jennifer Bryce. “Where and Why Are 10 Million Children Dying Every Year?” The Lancet 361:2226-2234. 2003.)

If all of the hungry people in the world were combined, the total number would be large enough to be the world’s third-largest country, and more than three times the population of the entire United States. Read more…

Posted on March 21st, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Charity, Domain Names, Ending Poverty, Giving Back, Hunger, Microlending, Social Enterprise, e-Business | 1 Comment »

Contest for Name of New LDS Busines Professional Social Network

I’m doing consulting work for a new social network for LDS business professionals.  We’ve thought of names such as LDSnetworking.com, LDSnetwork.com, LDSconnection.com, LDSprofessionals.com, LDSlink.com, LDSspace.com, LDSconnections.com, LDSBizLink.com and vartions conaining “Mormon” and “LatterDay” instead of “LDS”.  The owner would love something less literal, such as TheHive.com (but that’s already taken).  He’s offering $500 for the person who comes up with a a name (that has not yet been suggested) that he selects for his social network. You can post your ideas as comments to this blog entry.

Posted on March 10th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Social Networking, e-Business | 1 Comment »

Liberty Enligtening the World

statue-of-liberty1On Saturday I took the ferry to Liberty Island in New York Harbor for the the first time to visit the statue which has become the most well-recognized symbol for America and liberty.

Did you know that the official name for this statue is not “The Statue of Liberty?”  It was instead named “Liberty Enlightening the World.”  

In 1883 Emma Lazarus penned the famous words, which are now engraved at the base of this statue: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Millions of people in the world today who are still victims of slavery, poverty, abandonment, disease, and repressive governments. I need to not sit idly in my land of liberty and forget the “tired…poor…huddled masses yearning to breathe free” just as my ancestors did.  I am enjoying the gift of liberty because of my ancestors, and because I have been given the gift of liberty, I need to use that gift to help liberate others.

These famous words of Emma Lazarus are also just as appropriate to Americans today as they were to the immigrants from generations past who cheered as they entered New York Harbor and saw this statue welcoming them to America. These immigrants came to America seeking liberty.  Today, the immigrants’ ancestors are also seeking liberty…liberty from many repressive elements of our generation, such as addiction, debt, sin and abuse.

May each of us shake off the shackles which bind us, seize hold of our amazing gift of liberty, and help others to do the same.

Posted on February 23rd, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Ending Poverty, Giving Back, Global Orphan Crisis, Life Lessons, Patriotism | No Comments »

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