I have decided to move my blogging to the website for my social entrepreneur project: Melted Food Truck. The website is www.meltedtruck.com. Please visit and see what I am up to! Also, please spread the word so others can follow in this journey with me! Thank you for your continued support!
Now that there is a cause to focus on, I had to figure out a way to actually help. Stay tuned to read about the chronicles of a 16-year-old businesswoman with lofty goals to change the world one grilled cheese at a time!
Have you ever wondered how charities can thrive solely on donations? It gets redundant to ask the same people to donate to the same cause, and at some point there is donor burn out. So I came up with a simple idea to make a perpetual flow of money into a charity without having to ask for donations every month from the same people. It allows me to combine two things that I am passionate about: philanthropy and entrepreneurship.
I decided to start a small business and donate all of the profit to International Justice Mission. If the business is successful, it will provide a constant flow of money onto the organization without asking anyone for donations. I understand this idea is not a new one . For example, the founder of TOMS (Blake Mycoskie) is a social entrepreneur—his company donates one pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair sold, among other things.
Being a social entrepreneur is not all about just giving money to a charity. By having a business that backs a charity, customers will become informed on what the business is doing behind the scenes. The business can use this platform to reach even more people and inform them, in my case, about the work IJM is doing. Awareness will spread, more people will get involved, and change will happen.
Previously, I explained what the Prometheus effect is. Now I’d like to share how I found a passion and actually executed this theory.
When I decided I could do something to change the world, I began my research and almost became angry. There is so much hurt in this world and so many causes I wanted to help that it was overwhelming. It was very difficult for me to focus on one thing because I’m passionate about it all– from clean water to safe orphanages to medical innovation, etc. This is where the mindset of Prometheus came in. I took a step back and decided there must be a common factor, something at the root that is causing all of the hurt. As I researched the broader topic of poverty, I was led to the TED website, and came across a TED Talk called “The Hidden Reason for Poverty the World Needs to Address Now” (link provided below). Little did I know, this talk would completely change my life.
To say I was hooked is an understatement. The speaker was Gary Haugen and he made the point that while thousands of people are driven to compassion when it comes to helping the poor in developing countries, the one thing that effectively helps the poor lift themselves up is legal protection. Without it, girls are being raped on the way to school, children and adults are being sold into slavery, neighbors grab land from widows, etc. and the perpetrators do not get punished. The crimes continue and the poor just get poorer. I read Mr. Haugen’s book called The Locust Effect, which gave me a deeper insight into these issues and his solutions with respect to legal protection. I soon realized that Mr. Haugen is the founder of one of the largest non-profit organizations working for justice in developing countries: The International Justice Mission (ijm.org). I had found my passion, and I knew that this was the “thing” I wanted to put all of my efforts into.
Link to the talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_haugen_the_hidden_reason_for_poverty_the_world_needs
For all of those who may be wondering about the title of my blog, you are in luck. I will explain exactly what the Prometheus Effect is, but first who is Prometheus?
As some may know, Prometheus is a Greek god (a Titan to be exact). I could bore you by telling each story about him and how he ended up tied to a rock where his liver was eaten by an eagle all day and regenerated at night… but I’ll get straight to the point. Prometheus is known as the great philanthropist; he loved humans. He cared for the humans. He even defied the other gods and suffered for the humans (no wonder he is commonly depicted as Christ-like in paintings). The reason why I love Prometheus so much is because of the way he thought strategically. He knew the humans were suffering and he could have easily given them food, water, or some other material goods that would have provided temporary relief, but he was much more clever. He decided to steal fire from mount Olympus. Fire? Why is that any better than food or water? What he did was brought them light, and this gave them something that would enable them to help themselves. By simply giving them food or water (which would run out) they would have become dependent upon the gods to provide for them, but that obviously wouldn’t last long.
So what exactly is the Prometheus effect? As modern day philanthropists and activists fight to end global poverty, something just isn’t working. Global poverty is one of the longest, broadest issues prevalent among mankind. Perhaps we need to shift the way we think about poverty. As the Chinese proverb implies, you can give a hungry man a fish, or you can teach him to catch it himself. We need to think about which choice is more effective. Bringing water bottles to Africa might actually be counterproductive. I believe that when attempting to aid those in poverty, we should approach it as Prometheus did. Create a macro solution instead of a micro one. Changing entire villages opposed to feeding a few families. If all philanthropists had the mindset of Prometheus, I believe the strides being taken to end global poverty would be much more effective. We have to think on a higher level. Go beyond the small things and think about the whole infrastructure. Instead of just bringing them water why don’t we come up with a sustainable innovation to filter clean water and pump it all over the area. Maybe even hire a couple hundred laborers from the area to build the structures. Providing jobs and creating a system to deliver clean water- two birds, one stone. That is what the Prometheus Effect is all about.
I understand that there are many organizations doing amazing things and I do not mean to neglect the fact that many people are taking great strides to help. The people who are bringing gallons of water to Africa are doing great things and there’s nothing that brings me greater joy than knowing people are trying to do good. Every bit of aid being provided IS helping, we just have to direct their help in the right direction.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “ Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” This is why I plan on serving, no matter the circumstance. I may not have a college degree (yet) and usually my subject and verb agree, but nonetheless, I want to serve.
It wasn’t a single moment or experience, but many little moments that began to add up and eventually sparked something inside of me that I wasn’t able to forget. On my trip to Italy last summer, I was exposed to 30 other people from around the world. I met thinkers and doers who fueled movements in their own corners of the world. this was a shock because I had only existed in a small circle until then. I realized that there is, in fact, a world outside of Texas (a pretty big one actually). My perspective on the world changed after those 2 weeks and it sparked a deep curiosity. That’s the “thing” that enabled me to look at other people’s ideas, research endless topics and watch hours of TED talks. It was curiosity. I wanted to know the truth about far away places. The ones we only see on the internet, or in magazines. I knew there were issues around the world but I wanted to know more. I started with India and researched what the people, culture, government, infrastructure, etc. were like there. I discovered how people barely exist in such horrible conditions. It continued for Cambodia, Guatemala, then Africa, and so on around the world. I discovered the truth about these places and at first, I honestly became mad that such evil existed in the world and I didn’t even know about it. I managed to turn that anger into motivation which even further enhanced my research. It was a ripple effect. I wanted to know more, so I found out.
At one point it occurred to me that I, a teenage girl living in a small town in east Texas, can do something about this. There have been many “movements” to end world poverty and I know they have helped in many ways, but the problem still exists.
Despite my small shoe size, I am going to change the world by altering the lives of others in one way or another with a “heart full of grace” and “a soul generated by love.”
Hello, my name is Anna and I’d like to welcome you to my blog by telling you a little bit about myself. While my passions range from one end of the spectrum to the other, I would like to highlight three things that have been prevalent throughout my life.
I find great joy in any type of sport, especially soccer, volleyball, track, yoga and English horseback riding. I have always been physically inclined and I can’t remember a time when my mom wasn’t dropping me off at practice or a riding lesson as well as my parents taking me to a game or competition. As a result of this, I have developed a love of fitness and nutrition. Being an athlete I was exposed to amazing people who have taught me a lot about heath science, which is something that continues to inspire and intrigue me.
My passion also lies in travel, whether it is abroad or within the United States, nothing is more thrilling than arriving in a new place and being immersed in a new culture. I have traveled domestically for vacations with my family to many interesting places, but we have also traveled outside the U.S. to destinations like Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Last summer I traveled without my family to Italy where I studied photography and European history. This coming summer I am traveling to Spain to further my education in the Spanish language.
Photography in Florence
Service has also been a huge part of my life. I have participated in many service trips around Texas, but a few years ago I traveled to the Dominican Republic where I was fortunate enough to team up with Outreach 360 and join the many volunteers who teach English in a school in Monte Christi. Each one of the service trips I have been a part of has been amazing and even life-altering. Serving others is something I believe should be a part of everyone’s life.
Now that you know a little bit about me, I hope you will continue to read my blog! I will be taking my readers through my experience of finding a passion and discovering creative solutions to one of the world’s most perplexing issues—global poverty. However, poverty is not the only topic I will discuss. I will share how my entrepreneurial spirit is leading to business ventures that will help alleviate global poverty. I will share my successes and failures as I take this journey. I am also a thinker. I want to allow my readers to see the way I view things because exposure to other people’s ideas provokes thought, which is my ultimate goal. I’d like to document each step I take toward the dream I have of changing the world. Lastly, I’d like to prove to everyone that age is not a restriction. I am a 16 year-old girl, currently attending high school but that does not make the slightest difference. Ideas are ideas, and no matter how many years you have been on this earth, you can make a difference. Not only do I want to prove that it’s possible for a teenager to change the world, but I want to inspire other young people to do the same.